Social care fraud
What is social care fraud?
Social care fraud can include:
- the management of finances where the service user lacks the capacity, such as appointeeship, court of protection and other management of client's funds (e.g. in sheltered housing), which may link to other offences such as theft, false accounting, and fraud by abuse of position
- failing to declare income or savings during a financial assessment
- falsely claiming or misusing Direct Payments/personal budgets, either by the service user or carer; and
- carers, relatives or "friends" abusing clients receiving council services e.g. theft of cash/belongings, pressure to spend money on them or alter their wills.
What are the costs involved in social care fraud?
According to CIPFA’s latest fraud and corruption tracker, social care fraud costs the public purse an estimated £8.2m a year – with the average case worth £18k.
How does this impact on you?
For every penny that is defrauded from the council (and the taxpayer), this reduces the level of available resources the council has and therefore the level of services the council can provide.
Social care fraud takes resources from Adult and Children's Social Services, impacting on the level of services available to vulnerable adults and children.
How to report your suspicions of social care fraud?
Fraud Hotline - 0800 953 0217
Report online