More than £100,000 has been racked up in fraud and mistakes involving housing benefit in Dundee in the last two years, new figures have revealed.
And thousands have also been spent by the council on dealing with blue badges which shouldn’t have been issued.
Dundee City Council was among the public bodies to participate in the latest National Fraud Initiative (NFI) — a counter-fraud exercise that is coordinated by Audit Scotland.
The initiative matches electronic data within and between bodies to detect and prevent fraud and mistakes.
Across Scotland, a total of £1.6 million was identified in fraudulent and incorrect housing benefit.
Between June 2014 and March 2016, Dundee City Council identified £101,298.35, Fife Council £67,753.17, and Perth & Kinross Council £26,464.47.
And over the same period, the local authority recovered 216 blue badges which should not have been issued, a process which costs thousands.
The report by Audit Scotland said the estimated cost applied to the cancellation of a blue badge is £575 — but they may be sold on the black market for more than this.
In Angus, 112 badges were recovered and in Perth and Kinross, 452.
Along with black market purchase, fraudsters can also falsify blue badges or steal genuine ones from cars.
On some occasions, people have been found to be using badges held by someone who was now deceased.
A Dundee City Council spokesman said: “The council continuously keeps under review its processes to try to minimise the amount of fraud committed against the public purse.
“While it would be irresponsible to go into detail about the specific measures that are taken, anti-fraud activity is a feature of our work and we make every effort possible to support Audit Scotland’s National Fraud Initiative.”
In June 2015, Dundee was one of six bodies seen to be falling short in its efforts to detect error or fraud, prompting a letter from the Assistant Auditor General highlighting concern over the late submission of data and limited inspection work carried out.
However, as of February 2016, Dundee City Council was found to have made progress, including improving the prioritisation given to investigating NFI matches.
This had resulted in overpayments of £179,000 being identified.
Labour opposition member Kevin Keenan said: “With blue badges, there are people that desperately need them and fraud under this circumstances is something I have no time for at all. It isn’t like parking in Dundee is hugely expensive so this needs rooting out.
“There is an onus on the council to tackle housing benefit fraud and protect public money.”