Avoiding fraudulent claims

How it affects you

Only those people entitled to benefit are allowed to claim. It is the council’s responsibility to ensure the benefit system is secure and that fraudulent claimants are identified & further action taken against them as necessary.

How does it affect me when I make a claim?

When making a claim for Housing or Council Tax benefit you are instructed on the claim form to support your claim with the necessary evidence. Please the read the guidance notes carefully with the claim form. You can greatly speed up the time it takes to pay you benefit if you provide all the necessary evidence asked for. Any delay in supplying the evidence will mean a delay in payment to you. If you cannot supply any evidence asked for, please tell us why – don’t just leave it as we cannot pay you until we are satisfied about your circumstances.

How does this affect my claim – once it is in payment?

We will contact everyone receiving Housing or Council Tax Benefit at some point during their claim. This could be by asking you to fill in a review form or by visiting you in your home.

The aim is to improve our service to you by making sure you receive all the benefits you are entitled to, prevent any unnecessary benefit from being overpaid, that you have to pay back, and to confirm your details to make sure that our assessment of your entitlement is accurate.

What if there are any changes in my circumstances after I make my claim?

The law says you must tell us about any change in your circumstances immediately. You should tell us in writing about all changes.

For example
• If you move house
• If your rent changes
• If someone moves in or out
• If you :
- Have a change of income or savings
- Qualify for another benefit
- Stop getting Income Support
• If someone who lives with you:
- Has a change of income or savings
- Qualifies for another benefit
- Stops getting Income Support
• If you are not sure if a change need reporting or not – be on the safe side and report it anyway!

CiC reporting form (pdf)
We need to see proof of any changes – see guidance notes (pdf).
We have to see original documents (we cannot accept photocopies).
For more information see What changes do I need to report

Please take your original documents to one of our offices or post them to: Enfield Council
PO Box 63
Civic Centre
Silver Street
Enfield EN1 3XW
For details of our offices and opening times see our Contact us page.

If you are sending valuable documents such as passports or driving licences it is advisable to send them by recorded delivery. If you send documents to us by recorded delivery we will return them to you by recorded delivery.

Don’t delay in telling us about changes - If you delay telling us of a change, and we find out about this later, you may be overpaid. All overpayments must be paid back.

Throughout the year we match our records with records held by the Department of Works and Pensions, The Pension Service and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Income. Any mismatches will be investigated to ensure we keep the Benefit system secure and identify any fraudulent claimants. Make sure you report all changes to us immediately to avoid being identified for further investigation.

For further information see Investigating Benefit Cheats.

This document was last updated on 2008-09-19 16:20:17 published by the Revenues and Benefits team. Document Reference:LBE_130541