Fraud

Council Tax fraud is committed when someone deliberately gives false or misleading information so that they can pay less or no Council Tax. For example,

• claiming to live in a single-person household to get the single person discount when more than one person lives in your household 
• pretending to be a student to get the student discount, when you are not a student 
• failing to tell us that you no longer need to claim a Council Tax reduction

You can report Council Tax fraud to us.

Benefit fraud is committed when someone claims benefits they’re not entitled to on purpose. For example by:

• not reporting a change in circumstances
• providing false information

You can report benefit fraud on GOV.UK.

Tenancy fraud is committed when, for example, someone:

• lets out a council home without our permission
• obtains housing by deception by giving false information in an application
• wrongly claims succession by taking over a tenancy they are not entitled to
• swaps homes with another council tenant without our consent

You can find more details and report this fraud on our tenancy fraud page.

Blue Badge fraud is committed when, for example, a badge is:

• used by someone else when the badge holder is not with them
• not displayed correctly
• being used after it's expired or reported lost or stolen
• altered or copied
• used by someone who gave false information when they applied
• not valid, for example, because the badge holder died

You can report Blue Badge fraud to Essex County Council.

Procurement and contract fraud costs millions of pounds a year and includes:

    •    bribery and corruption: bribing officials for contracts or favours
    •    invoice fraud: creating fake invoices for goods and services not provided
    •    bid-rigging  and cartels: colluding to manipulate bidding processes for contracts

You can report procurement fraud to us.

Other fraud types include compensation fraud, expenses fraud, insurance fraud, payroll fraud, planning and licensing fraud.

You can report cyber fraud to the police

You can report grants, social care, schools and travel scheme frauds to Essex County Council.