NEW technology is being used in the war against benefit cheats in a North Yorkshire town.

Selby District Council is using software to catch people who illegally claim single person discount on their council tax when they do not live alone. Cheats could be costing the area £100,000 a year.

The software will be used to check and electronically compare databases held both inside and outside the council.

A council spokesman said: “This is not about snooping on people unnecessarily. This is about protecting public funds and ensuring that a discount is only given to those householders who are actually entitled to receive it.

“For obvious reasons we’re not going to give a definitive list of exactly what we’ll be looking at as part of this process. But it’s fair to say that we’ll be looking at some of the records held by other government agencies, and credit reference agencies. This isn’t a check on individuals, rather it is a check on properties to see who is on record as living there and how that compares with our council tax records in circumstances where a single occupier discount has been claimed.”

Councillor Gillian Ivey, chairwoman of Selby District Council’s social board, said the council had a duty to protect taxpayers’ money and ensure the discount is used only by those who are genuinely entitled to it.

She said: “Claiming this discount if you’re not entitled is fraud, and we won’t accept it.

“We’ll continue to use the resources available to us to track down and prosecute those people who give us false details or fraudulent information in order to claim financial support that they’re not entitled to.”

There are 36,000 properties in the Selby district, with more than 12,000 receiving the single person occupancy discount. An average single person discount is worth £280 a year and it is estimated that nationally about three per cent of discounts are incorrect.

This could be costing all public authorities funded through the council tax system, including the district, county and local parish councils, North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service and the Police Authority, more than £100,000 each year.

Over the next few months, Selby District Council will compare its council tax information with other databases to identify those cases where more than one adult is living at an address and yet a single person occupancy discount is being claimed.