Retrospective screening against NFI data sets helps prevent overpayments to care homes

Over the next three years, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council has ambitious plans for innovation, improved customer service and sustainable growth.

SITUATION

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council has ambitious plans for improved customer service, sustainable growth and innovation over the next three years. Their journey to become customer focused, modern, efficient and business minded council has seen many improved ways of working being introduced.

These include focusing on their customers to build stronger communities and come up with innovative ways to deliver sustainable services. This new focus has led the council to look at social care payments to determine how, while continuing to support the vulnerable, they still increase efficiencies and protect public services from fraud and error losses.

SOLUTION

ReCheck, from the National Fraud Initiative (NFI), has allowed Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council to retrospectively check existing social care payment records against other national NFI data sets.

ReCheck has not only helped Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council ensure that any changes in individual circumstances are applied to social care payments and services promptly, but it has also provided some level of assurance that the remaining payments they were making were likely to be genuine.

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council chose in particular, to use ReCheck from the NFI, to perform more frequent screening of payments to private residential care homes against deceased person’s data. This was to ensure payments were not continuing inappropriately after the resident had passed away. Recovering overpayments that have gone on for a long period are more difficult and time consuming to administer.

RESULTS

£24,000 IN OVERPAYMENTS

Identified for private residential care homes during the mandatory NFI exercise in 2016.

ADDITIONAL £47,000 IDENTIFIED

In private residential care home overpayments identified as a result of further matching using ReCheck during 2017-2018.

NOTIFICATION DELAYS

Overpayments had been made to a number of private residential care homes due to delays in them notifying the council of the death date.

RECOVERY OF OVERPAYMENTS

All overpayments have now been recovered.

A spokesperson from the Anti-Fraud Team at Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council said:

”“ReCheck is a simple cost-effective way to ensure your checking processes are in place. The system is flexible and enables you to check against one of best performing data sets, at a time that suits your organisation.”

If you would like more information about ReCheck and how it can protect your organisation from fraud and overpayments please get in touch:

Cabinet Office: nfiqueries@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Synectics Solutions Public Sector Service Team: 0845 3458019 helpdesk@nfi.gov.uk