A Stormont department has failed to get to grips with the scale of social housing fraud in Northern Ireland, an Assembly committee has claimed.
The Department of Social Development (DSD) has been too slow and not proactive enough to take steps to recover properties being claimed for under false pretences, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said.
Housing tenancy fraud is the use of social housing by people who are not entitled or do not need it. Frauds include sub-letting for profit, providing false information in a housing application and abandoning the property with no one living there.
The committee said tenancy fraud impacted on vulnerable homeless families on the waiting list for properties.
Members highlighted the cost of the problem, claiming that the recovery of 100 fraudulently occupied social homes could save £800,000 that would have been spent placing waiting-listed families temporarily in privately rented housing.
The committee said there had been an “alarming increase” in the cost of providing temporary accommodation for homeless families, from £5.2 million in 2008 to £10.9 million last year.
Members said it was “unacceptable” that the DSD had not established the level of social housing fraud in Northern Ireland.
The committee estimated that, based on research by the Audit Commission in England over the past four years, up to 2,400 social houses could be fraudulently occupied in Northern Ireland.
PAC chairwoman Michaela Boyle MLA said: “Social housing tenancy fraud is a serious problem that impacts on the most vulnerable in our society.
“Our report has come to the conclusion that our local social housing providers have been too slow to deal with tenancy fraud and have not been proactive in trying to recover fraudulently occupied properties. We are also unhappy that the Department for Social Development has not yet established the level of tenancy fraud here and we expect them to do this urgently.”
The PAC report was also critical of the fact that there have been no prosecutions for tenancy fraud in Northern Ireland, saying the threat of prosecution was an important deterrent for potential offenders.
Ms Boyle did note some positive findings in the report in regard to steps taken by the Housing Executive and housing associations.
“The committee is encouraged by the range of measures that have more recently been put in place by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and Northern Ireland housing associations to tackle tenancy fraud proactively,” she said.
“In particular, we welcome the consideration of innovative approaches such as the introduction of a single investigative team to combat tenancy fraud across the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and housing associations and the establishment of an inter-agency dedicated tenancy fraud hotline.
“We look forward to seeing a more proactive approach to prevention, detection and investigation in the future.”
A spokeswoman for the DSD said: “We welcome the PAC report on social housing tenancy fraud and will consider the committee’s recommendations in full.
“We are grateful that PAC has acknowledged that progress has been made by the range of measures that have been put in place by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and Northern Ireland housing associations to tackle tenancy fraud proactively. The department, Housing Executive and housing associations are fully committed to ensuring the recommendations are implemented in full.
“A detailed memorandum of reply will be prepared in due course which will set out the considered response to the issues raised.
“It would be inappropriate to comment in detail at this stage.”
