Fraud

The best way to deal with fraud is to stop it before it happens.

To help protect public money, we have several checks in place to prevent and detect fraud across our services.

How we prevent fraud

To prevent fraud, we:

• carefully check the information given to us in applications for services such as benefits, housing, Council Tax and business rates
• take part in data‑matching exercises, which compare records from different systems to spot inconsistencies
• work with the National Fraud Initiative (NFI), which matches our data with information held by other councils, government departments, housing providers, and partner agencies.

We're also part of the Kent Intelligence Network (KIN), a partnership between us and:

• Kent County Council
• Kent and Medway Towns Fire Authority
• all Kent district, borough and city councils.

Find out more information about the Kent Intelligence Network.

These partnerships help us identify fraud more effectively.

National Fraud Initiative (NFI)

We're legally required to protect public funds. This means we may share information with other bodies that audit or manage public money.

Data matching works by comparing computer records held by different organisations. If the records do not match as expected, this may suggest a problem that needs looking into. It does not automatically mean fraud has taken place, it simply flags something for further investigation.

The Cabinet Office requires us to take part in the NFI and provides the legal powers for data matching under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.

This does not require consent from individuals, but the Cabinet Office must follow a strict Code of Practice to protect personal information.

Find out more about the government's Code of Practice.

More details about the NFI and how data is used can be found on GOV.UK.