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Check your Housing Benefit, Council Tax entitlement and Council Tax on OpenAshfield
The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support scheme is for people on low incomes who genuinely need help with their housing costs.
We are committed to combating benefit fraud and stopping the cheats. If you know someone is committing fraud you should report it.
As part of our work against benefit fraud we use the Verification Framework. This is a Government initiative meant to:
The main ways that people commit benefit fraud are by making a false statement on their claim form or by failing to report a change in their circumstances promptly.
By doing either or both of these, they may be committing a criminal offence under Social Security Legislation or other legislation such as the Fraud Act 2006.
When someone commits fraud everyone who pays Income Tax or Council Tax is a victim and is being cheated out of other essential services by the greed of those who are not in genuine need.
This type of fraud costs the taxpayer an estimated £2 billion per year. This equates to more than £70 for every taxpayer. This money could be invested in essential services.
Common types of benefit fraud are people who:
If someone knowingly assists a claimant with a fraudulent claim they may also be guilty of an offence.
Anyone found to be committing benefit fraud will see a loss of benefits but administrative errors may also result in a loss. There are 5 levels with different penalties:
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