A councillor has claimed colleagues and officials were ‘gleeful’ in the pursuit of benefit fraudsters.
SNP councillor Beverley Clark told a meeting of East Ayrshire Council’s Governance and Scrutiny Committee that she wanted to abstain from noting a progress report on benefit fraud investigations.
She indicated that she felt the way the council pursued fraudulent claims lacked ’empathy and understanding’.
But it was unclear whether she was talking about intentional fraud before she cited her own experience of ‘bringing up a family on benefits’ as the reason for her objection.
The report to the committee outlined how the corporate fraud investigators had recovered £464,000 since 2016/17, covering council tax, business rates, discretionary housing payments, blue badges and tenancies.
It also added the investigation of ‘suspicious’ covid grant applications to its remit.
The matter is one that is generally noted without much issue. However, the SNP member insisted that she didn’t not want to be seen to be voting in favour.
While the focus was on those who had received benefits they were not entitled to by fraud or error, cllr Clark’s stance attempted to relate her call for compassion to those who were raising families while receiving benefits.
She said: “A show of hands. How many people have raised a family on benefits?
“Anyone? If you had maybe we would be less gleeful about prosecuting and getting money back. Try it for a year and you’ll see how hard it is. A bit more empathy and understanding would go a long way.
“Let’s talk about if someone is owed money by the council or the DwP, how long does it take that money to be returned?. I cannot support anything that has happened today and I don’t want to seen to be voting for it.”
Councillor Lillan Jones, Governance and Scrutiny committee chairperson, said: “We are not actively out looking to prosecute people, we are here to protect council money.”
Cllr Clark responded: “You haven’t tried getting shoes for your kids on benefits. I have.
“I can’t support anything I have heard today. Nobody is going to second it, because no-one has been in my situation, apparently.”
Council guidelines require opposition to be made as an amendment to a motion. Only in the event of that amendment failing to get a seconder from fellow councillors, could Cllr Clark have recorded her dissent on official minutes of the meeting.
Following discussion, she agreed that the fact that she had aired her opposition would be sufficient.
Between March 29 and September 26, East Ayrshire received 176 referrals over possible fraud or error, both internally from council staff and from residents.
Laura Miller, who heads up the corporate fraud team covering East and North Ayrshire, told the committee that this was a significant increase on previous years and exceeds pre-pandemic levels.
Over that six month period, 176 referrals were made to the corporate fraud team.
Investigations saw the recovery of 25 tenancies where tenants had absconded, allowing them to be re-let while, seeking to recover costs relating to house clearances and cleaning.
The majority of referrals are closed after investigation without requiring further action.
A total of 40 investigations led to recovery of £22,565, with another 12 referred to another agency.
Of this, £7,612 was related to housing benefit, £9,420 to council tax, £1,430 to discretionary housing payments and £4,103 to other housing matters.
Since 2016/17 a total of £464,000 has been recovered both from matters reported to the fraud team and through proactive work.
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