Information services company Experian Public Sector has introduced a new fraud prevention data sharing initiative for UK social housing providers.
Social housing tenancy fraud is defined as the use of social housing by someone not entitled to occupy that home.
The new service will cross match the tenancy, waiting and temporary accommodation lists of housing providers to look for evidence of the same tenant or co-occupant being resident in another provider’s housing.
Under the new initiative, Experian will issue alerts that will help providers expedite their investigations and prioritise high risk fraud cases.
The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham has endorsed Experian’s latest fraud prevention initiative.
Experian UK and Ireland Identity and Fraud director Nick Mothershaw said the effective way to combat social housing tenancy fraud in the UK is through a collective data sharing and matching scheme that draws on the tenancy, waiting and temporary accommodation list records of all social home providers.
"Our experience of how fraudsters operate suggests multiple tenancy fraud is more widespread than previously thought and until we have conducted proper analysis across all providers, the full scale of it will remain unknown and continue unchecked," said Mothershaw.
