C&AG finds lack of anti-fraud policies around €500m-per-year housing assistance payment

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There are no anti-fraud policies in place around the State's €500m-a-year housing assistance payment (HAP), the national auditor has found.

The report from the Comptroller & Auditor General finds that "information on error and fraud relating to the HAP scheme is not routinely collected or published", and there are no formal measures around the detection of fraudulent claims, if they exist.

The report recommends that the Department of Housing should develop an anti-fraud policy for HAP and "implement a process of formal departmental control reviews and surveys to identify the incidence of error and suspected fraud in payments". 

It recommends that this could see the adoption of "certain measures used by the Department of Social Protection, such as a regime of formal control reviews and control surveys to detect the incidence of official error, applicant error, and suspected fraud in payments".

The department agreed to the report's three recommendations.

The C&AG also says the department should review its current oversight and management arrangements to ensure that they are ‘fit for purpose’, and "reflect good practice".

It adds that the department may not have the required level of information on the types and quality of accommodation available on the HAP scheme.

Given the level of exchequer spending on HAP, the department should ensure that it has sufficient appropriate information in relation to the quality of rental properties availed of for the scheme. This will require the development of a comprehensive framework for capturing and reporting on the quality of HAP accommodation," the report stated.

The C&AG found that while targets are set for the creation of new tenancies, the department does not use the information available to report on how many households are identified as being in need of support and how many are actually receiving that support. 

This hinders the evaluation of the effectiveness of the scheme, it found.

The report also finds problems with how tenants are reassessed when their income levels change.

It says: "Tenants are not reassessed for eligibility for social housing support if their income increases. 

Instead, their differential rent will be increased in line with the local authority’s differential rent scheme. If there is a break in support, they may then be reassessed for social housing."

A further finding is that there are little to no spot checks in place to confirm eligibility.

"[The] department places reliance on a signed declaration from HAP SSC in relation to eligibility," the report states. 

"No spot checks were conducted to validate the operation of the check."