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An NFI pilot data matching has been carried out at a number of local authorities in Wales and England to detect inappropriately claimed council tax single person discounts (SPD). The results have been very encouraging with the first pilot site identifying savings of £1.4million and the next three on target to achieve average SPD savings of £500,000, with significant numbers of linked housing benefits cases to investigate.
These successes have prompted further data matching at 30 authorities and the development of a range of additional tests to cover issues such as second home discount, disregards and rising 18s. The full range of tests will be available by December 2007 and the Auditor General therefore proposes to extend the exercise to all unitary authorities in Wales, and set out his intention in the Local Government Fees letter sent to Chief Executives on the 6th July.
Council tax data will be collected in October and electoral roll data during December with matches for investigation available on the NFI website in March 2008. This timing will balance the NFI investigation workload coming as it does between the 2006/2007 and 2008/2009 cycles. A full set of guidance based on the experiences of the pilot authorities will be distributed to assist in the most effective handling of the matches.
Data specification for council tax data - CT data should be extracted during the week commencing October 15th, and submitted by October 26th.
Data specification electoral register data - ER data should be submitted by 31st December, however, the effective date will be the same as the CT data - October 15th 2007.
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