Those suspected of fraud may be offered the chance to pay a fine of between £350 and £2,000 in lieu of prosecution.  However, from April, his upper limit will be increased from £2,000 to £5,000.  Given the very high level of fines, it is vital to obtain professional legal advice about how to deal with... Read More

The DWP have recently started to use a new letter head on the letters they send to those suspected of benefit fraud. They used to read  ‘DWP counter fraud’, they then changed this to ‘DWP and CPS’ and they are now using ‘HM Government’. If you get one of these, contact us immediately for free,... Read More

Following on from a pilot scheme which ran last year it has been announced that all local authority benefit fraud investigation teams will be merging with their local DWP fraud teams. This will take place gradually over the next 12 months and it remains to be seen how this will affect procedures and decision making... Read More

Real Time Information DWP and local authority benefit fraud investigators are now using the HMRC ‘real time’ information from employers etc when gathering evidence for alleged benefit fraud offences. This information is meant to be used to calculate tax liability and it is of concern to all who defend benefit fraud allegations that such information... Read More

As we have previously mentioned the new sentencing guidelines for benefit fraud have now come into force and are being applied by the courts. Generally speaking these are an improvement on the old guidelines as they remove the ‘multiple offences’ aggravating feature which were unfair and frequently misunderstood by the judiciary.

It used to be the rule that if a case of benefit fraud involved an amount of £2000 or less then the DWP would offer an Administrative Penalty instead of prosecuting a case through the criminal courts. The good news is that this figure has now been raised to £4000 and this is being applied... Read More

The new Sentencing Guidelines for benefit fraud offences are soon to come into force.  We have been told they will become applicable on the 1st October 2014 and from then on any new offences of benefit prosecuted in the criminal courts will have to follow the new guides.

If you have received a letter inviting you to an interview, now is the time to stop and consider the best approach for you.  Attendance at this stage is voluntary so you do have the option of not going.  Depending on the circumstances, you may be better off providing a written statement answering the investigators’... Read More

Don’t be fooled by fake law firms A quick internet search for ‘benefit fraud solicitors’ will give you a huge number of organisations to choose from, but beware: some are not what they seem.  There is an increasing number of businesses out there offering to help people with their benefit issues, but many of them are not... Read More

Single Fraud Investigation Service The Government is creating a new Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS) responsible for identifying welfare benefit fraud across the country. The SFIS, which is currently being piloted in a small number of areas, will sit within the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and bring together all investigations currently being undertaken... Read More