Hambleton District Council is currently undergoing a review of all its residents receiving a 25% discount on their council tax.
Single Person Discount is claimed when an adult is the sole adult occupant of the property.
Whilst the council is aware that most residents are claiming the discount appropriately there are, however, a minority who are attempting to defraud the system – these residents may not have reported a change in their circumstances and are receiving the discount when they are no longer entitled to it.
The Single Person Discount Review is a scheme used to detect those who are claiming a discount that they are no longer eligible for.
“We will shortly be sending those residents receiving Single Person Discount a letter asking for them to explain their current circumstances,” said Louise Branford-White, Head of Service for Finance.
“Not only will this be a way of keeping our records up to date, it will also be a way of allowing our residents to notify us if there has been a change in their circumstances.
“Hambleton is dedicated to protecting the public purse and detecting fraud. We take council tax fraud very seriously and so are very pro-active in confirming all entitlements to discounts.
“Since the 1 April, 2014, we have applied penalties to 452 customers council tax accounts, please do not let this happen to you – please keep us informed and report all changes. If you do not respond to our letter you will have your Single Person Discount removed and further investigations may be undertaken.”
All returned forms are handled by a centrally based local government scanning facility based in Nottingham who process documents on behalf of many local authorities.