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Audit Commission > National Fraud Initiative > Private sector > Services > Payroll screening

Payroll screening

What can payroll screening identify for your organisation?

  • Illegal workers – your payroll data will be matched to data from UKBA relating to in-country immigration and expired UK visas. The matches will identify employees that potentially have no right to work in the UK.
  • Employees committing benefit fraud - NFI can match your payroll data to local state benefits data to identify employees who are potentially committing benefit fraud and may therefore also pose a serious fraud risk to your organisation.
  • Employees working elsewhere – your payroll data will be matched to other organisations participating in NFI to identify where individuals maybe falsely claiming sick pay from your organisation while working elsewhere.

Employers have a legal responsibility to check that they do not employ illegal workers. Under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, you could be liable for a fine of up to £10,000 per illegal worker. Taking part in the National Fraud Initiative can help you identify illegal workers and acts as a strong deterrent against fraudulent employment applications and employee identity fraud.

Over 300 individuals were dismissed or have resigned because of matches highlighted by recent NFI exercises. Many of the cases unearthed by the National Fraud Initiative relate to employees who had been working illegally for several years and could have continued to do so had they not been highlighted.

The 2010/11 National Fraud Initiative identified £4 million in overpayments to illegal workers and our work led to the resignation or dismissal of 169 workers in this one exercise alone. We also identified £600,000 in payments made to employees whilst they were working somewhere else.

Further information