Experian Public Sector already works with 30 social housing providers and has detected potential fraud in one in 16 social homes, at a cost to tax payers of over £2bn.
Until now there has been no effective data sharing between providers of social housing and fraudsters have been able to obtain multiple tenancies in many different locations without detection.
Under the new initiative, Experian will offer shared data checks between all UK social housing providers and issue fraud alerts that will help providers expedite their investigations and prioritise high risk fraud cases.
Experian’s 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.
The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham has endorsed Experian’s latest fraud prevention initiative.
Councillor Johnson, Hammersmith & Fulham, said: “Analysis of our own tenancy lists has detected a significant level of fraud, with unlawful subletting evident in as many as one in twenty homes.
“But this is only part of the picture and we believe much more can be achieved nationally through a joint approach with other UK social housing providers.
“Serious fraudsters will be working across different providers in many parts of the country, and not just in London.
“A UK-wide data matching initiative to identify fraudsters, using information pooled across all social housing providers, remains the only logical and practical way to tackle the issue.”
Nick Mothershaw, director of identity and fraud at Experian UK and Ireland, added: “Too many fraudsters have been able to play the system by applying for and obtaining many social homes from different 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.”
Social housing tenancy fraud is defined as the use of social housing by someone not entitled to occupy that home.
It includes unauthorised sub-letting of all or part of a property, submitting false information in a housing application to get a tenancy, misrepresentation of circumstances or identity, and wrongful succession when the property is no longer occupied by the original tenant.
It includes so-called key selling and non-occupation by the tenant as their principal home.
It is currently estimated that social housing tenancy fraud is prevalent in 160,000 social homes in Britain.
