 Those who have been defrauding the council face prosecution |
Almost a quarter of those claiming single-person discount on council tax may be doing so fraudulently, a council investigation has found. Preston City Council says 5,000 addresses are now being looked at after detailed checks were carried out on almost 20,000 homes.
They were all claiming to be single-person households, granting them 25% discount on council tax.
Offenders are being warned that they could be prosecuted and face fines.
Detailed checks have been carried out on 19,886 homes in the city.
Councillor Martyn Rawlinson, executive member for resources, said: "There are 5,000 addresses which we're not sure about.
'Genuine cases'
"We know some of these will be errors as a result of a change in circumstances like bereavement, family break up or people just moving on and they will probably resent getting a letter from us.
"We also know that there will be a number of genuine cases where people have just forgotten to tell us that they no longer live alone. We do not want to penalise these people.
"We just want to collect the council tax that is rightly owed.
"No-one should think for one minute that they can defraud the system."
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