Our Revenues department has confirmed that to date, 160 households have
been investigated, and 156 have been determined to still be entitled to
the 25% discount.
Out of the people identified as 'potential frauds' by the Audit Commission in this council, less than one per cent were not entitled to the discount. Sadly the other 99% are on record as having been on an NFI 'hit list' in a situation where the NFI has falsely led people to believe that this means there was prima facie evidence to suspect fraud. This new piece of personal data can be widely shared, with, for example, agencies providing credit references and other 'anti fraud' organisations.
This is slightly better odds than the one in three thousand apparently produced in the pilot investigations IN SEARCH OF INCONSISTENCIES but it shows how hollow these assertions that 'where no match is found there will be no material affect' are. 'Matches' are simply people whom the NFI suspects on the basis of prejudice and membership of a particular population group 'might' turn out after investigations to be in inconsistent situations. Meanwhile a large group of the population falsely believes data matching IS comparing data sets to identify inconsistencies, not least because the Audit Commission has said that it is so many times that a lot of people have ended up believing it.
This stinks.