The National Fraud Initiative 2010/11 (PDF, 3.5Mb), in England has identified almost £229 million of fraud, overpayments and errors. This is made up of £139 million for 2010/11 plus £90 million of outcomes not previously reported from earlier exercises. Over the same time period, £47 million of fraud, overpayments and error were identified in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, raising the UK-wide total to £275 million traced.
Since the initiative's start in 1996, the programme has helped detect £939 million, taking it a step closer to achieving a £1 billion payback to the public purse since the initiative began.
The NFI is a data matching exercise. It compares information held by and between around 1,300 organisations including councils, the police, hospitals and 77 private companies. This helps to identify potentially fraudulent claims, errors and overpayments, all hosted on a secure website. When there is a match, there may be something that warrants investigation. For example, when data matching shows a person listed as dead and also in receipt of a pension, the relevant body will investigate and, if appropriate, stop pension payments.
The report is supported by:
Previous NFI reports are also available below.