The level of benefit fraud and overpayment has reached its highest level in Dundee.
The revelation came in a report, produced by the city council’s corporate services director, Marjory Stewart, to go before councillors on Monday.
It showed that in the 12 months up to March 31 this year, the council’s counter-fraud team had identified more than £2 million in fraudulent claims and errors £1,891,420 in overpayments and £232,301 in non-benefit fraud, such as council tax discount.
The number of overpayment investigations rose by 36%, from 234 to 319, with nearly half of those (43%) resulting in a reduction or ending of the additional payment.
The overpayments, for housing benefit and council tax benefit, either by fraud or in error, rose from £520,638 to £577,174.
The council is also responsible for administering benefits provided by the Department for Work and Pensions.
When these overpayments and tax credits were included, the amount discovered by the fraud team jumped by nearly 65%.
Investigators also handed more than 37 cases to the procurator fiscal, one more than the year before but despite the rise, successful prosecutions were down by more than one quarter.
In total, 51 sanctions were recorded, up from 44, with the recovery rate of fraud over-payments rising to 76.55%.
The number of cases written off was 12.09% and just under 10% had deductions made automatically from ongoing entitlement.
Dundee City Council is due to introduce a new corporate fraud team from June 1.