Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Debt Collection - HMRC Hires Bounty Hunters
HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have signed a deal with Experian (the credit reference agency) to use its data to detect fraud and error in the tax credits and benefits systems.
The Guardian reports that a recent HMRC pilot protected more than £16M of potential losses in tax credits, and projected savings over the 12 months of the contract are around £700M.
David Gauke, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, is quoted:
"The government will not tolerate people who dishonestly divert money away from those who are genuinely entitled to it. Working with Experian will allow HMRC to escalate the fight against tax credit fraudsters, helping to ensure that they are caught and punished."
HMRC has released a number of case studies illustrating where savings have been made in the pilot. One involved a woman claiming as a single parent with four children, where a search of Experian's information on financial applications showed that she had a partner living at the same address. This led to her awards being stopped.
HMRC won't say how much Experian are earning (either from direct fees or performance fees) for this work.
The Telegraph reports that Experian will identify cheats by trawling through their household bills, credit card applications and employment records and will be paid “by results".
Let us trust that this all works out well for everyone then!
I just have two small observations:
1 The results from pilot schemes run by HMRC are not always what they appear to be.
2 Not everyone is as enamoured of Experian as HMRC are.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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This is nothing new, experian have provided some info for years. Keep UP Ken i know its not easy!
ReplyDelete@7 December 2011 17:05
ReplyDeleteI was going to say the same thing, except add the caveat that it is nothing worse than the private sector do.
However I can't help thinking this particular way of using it will be used heavier on the can't pays than the won't pays. The won't pays will have already set up another identity.
I await some customer service nutter on this site to state that HMRC aren't doing their job properly by doing their job properly.
Anon
ReplyDeleteRe "This is nothing new, experian have provided some info for years. Keep UP Ken i know its not easy!"
I suggest you tell David Gauke that then, as he seems to be under the impression that it is new:).
David Gauke, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, is quoted:
"The government will not tolerate people who dishonestly divert money away from those who are genuinely entitled to it. Working with Experian will allow HMRC to escalate the fight against tax credit fraudsters, helping to ensure that they are caught and punished."
@Ken.
ReplyDeleteIt's new for it to be used in the manner described. It's normally for when someones gone to a call about a self assessment debt and it has been claimed the person no longer lives at the address, or similar.
Bearing in mind the process (according to the Telegraph report) under what lawful authority are Experian trawling their records and then releasing data to HMRC? Presumably HMRC are also releasing tax payer data to Experian in the first place, otherwise how could the process work. What lawful authority is there for that?
ReplyDelete@9 December 2011 00:57
ReplyDeleteYour guess is as good as mine. Have had it happen to me (though wasn't HMRC, it was a well known company's product endorsed by Rowan Atkinson in the 80's/90's).
Because David Gauke, is the exchequer secretary to the Treasury I would not expect him to know anything! On the other hand Ken you are usually in the know. You would be astounded at some of the info provided by them and it's not just used for SA debts either.
ReplyDeleteDavid Gauke is right government really need to take action and punished those who are doing a disgusting thing like that.
ReplyDelete