Transfer of local authority and contracted benefit fraud investigation staff to DWP

In the Autumn Statement on 5 December 2013, the government announced it would introduce a single Fraud Investigation Service to investigate benefit fraud across the whole of the welfare system.

The government proposes laying regulations in Parliament to transfer local authority and contractor staff working on benefit fraud investigations to the new service that will be based in DWP.

The transfer will take place in 2 phases:

• Phase 1 – transfer of staff from a small number of locations in summer 2014 to evaluate the process
• Phase 2 – transfer of staff from the remaining locations between October 2014 and March 2016

On 3 March 2014, DWP wrote to local authority chief executives and other interested groups to consult on the proposed method of transferring staff.