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Income Related Rent debt : Contents

Income Related Rent debt from fraud

Only Income Related Rent debt cases investigated by Client Intervention Services can be considered fraud.

Suspicion of fraud

When you suspect a client may be committing fraud - this is called fraud suspicion.

A fraud suspicion could come about due to an interview, a phone conversation or a processing action.

Some examples of client situations that may result in fraud suspicion include:

  • undeclared partners
  • undeclared or under declared income
  • false identity or identity theft
  • deliberate omission of information or
  • falsified or misleading information

Period over which to establish fraud debt

When a higher calculated rate of Income Related Rent has been established due to fraud, a debt can be established from:

  • the start date of the tenancy - which is the date the rate of Income Related Rent was first calculated from or
  • the date fraud commenced

until period end date, which is:

whichever is applicable.

For more information see:

Fraud resources [no link find out why]

Legislation

  • Recovery where rate of rent too low section 127 Public and Community Housing Management Act 1992
  • Offence not to provide information or to provide false or misleading information section 130 Public and Community Housing Management Act 1992
  • Offence to mislead agency for certain purposes or results section 131 Public and Community Housing Management Act 1992
  • Debts and Deductions section 353 Social Security Act 2018
  • Debts due to the Crown regulation 206(g) Social Security Regulations 2018
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The rent effective date is the one-off date on which an increased rate of Income Related Rent is charged.

The rent effective date is aligned with the next charge date.

This is the date the housing provider charges the rent. It does not change; it is a regular day of every week or fortnight.

Note that the rent effective date of an increase in rent is aligned with the charge date.