Investigating Tenancy Fraud

We provide affordable housing for some of the most vulnerable people in our society so when someone abuses this provision we take it very seriously.

Tenancy fraud may prevent an eligible household in need of accommodation from being housed. In order to tackle this, we intend to take part in an investigation to identify potentially fraudulent claims and payments.

The investigation, called the 2012/13 National Fraud Initiative (NFI), is led by the Audit Commission who will take part in a data matching exercise to compare residents’  records against other records held by the same or another body to see how far they match.

Where a match is found it may indicate that there is an inconsistency that requires further investigation. No assumption can be made as to whether there is fraud, error or other explanation until an investigation is carried out.

The data matching exercise does not require the residents’ consent under the Data Protection Act 1998. This investigation is set out in Part 2A of the Audit Commission Act 1998. (Please take a look at the links listed below.)

Affinity Sutton is one of only a handful of housing associations to employ a dedicated team to investigate tenancy fraud. Since January 2010, we have funded our own dedicated Neighbourhood Auditor team to investigate allegations of tenancy fraud and last year we recovered 60 properties.

If you suspect someone of housing fraud, contact us on 020 7378 5610 or email housing.fraud@affinitysutton.com. Your report will be treated in the strictest confidence and can be reported anonymously.

For further information on data matching in the Affinity Sutton Group, please contact Vijay Patel, Head of Group Business Assurance and Risk, on telephone 0300 100 0303.