National fraud exercise saves over £20m in two years

Work to identify fraud has saved almost £22m across Scotland’s public sector in the last two years, auditors have said.

That takes the total saving since the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) began in Scotland to £201m.

The data matching exercise takes place every two years across the UK to identify matches and anomalies across public bodies’ data sets, including payroll records, electoral registers, and housing benefit claims.

Since 2024 in Scotland, the NFI has identified £6m of overpayments that can be recovered and £9m of estimated forward saving. A further £7m is the estimated value of fraud and error identified that does not directly impact on public bodies' finances.

John Cornett, executive director of audit services at Audit Scotland, said: “The NFI remains vitally important at a time of ongoing financial pressures across the public sector. 

“Public bodies are getting better at delivering the NFI, but they need to ensure they have staff available to effectively follow up on matches.” 

There are 127 organisations which take part in the NFI in Scotland.

Main areas of savings came from pensions (£4.8m) and single person discounts for council tax (£4.1m).

The 2024/25 exercise resulted in slightly fewer savings than 2022/23, but auditors say this is largely due to reduced savings from housing benefits as the number of recipients has fallen. Other outcomes identified have increased.

Audit Scotland has called for follow-up work to be timelier and better focused, and committed to working with public bodies to support efficient delivery of the next NFI.