NEARLY 100 York tenants have had their benefits stopped as allegations of benefit fraud in the city are investigated.

The claimants need to be reassessed to ensure that their claims are legitimate.

They have been contacted by letter and have been invited to the City of York Council's customer advice centre for reassessment.

The council's director of community services Bob Towner said legitimate claims would be reinstated immediately.

He said: "This is public money and we have to do this as a precautionary measure. It does not imply any suspicion necessarily, but we need to make these checks. Nobody who has made a legitimate claim will be without rent.

"But they need to come in and satisfy staff that they are bona fide tenants. I apologise for any waste of time, but there is no way we can know whether people are entitled to housing benefit until we do these checks."

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