The London Borough of Lambeth council has prevented £450,000
worth of benefit fraud with
lie-detecting technology.
The council ran a five-month trial of the voice risk analysis
(VRA) technology, asking 2,000 claimants to take part on a
voluntary basis. Of these, 377 had their benefits stopped or
decreased.
The VRA technology detects minute changes in people's voices
which indicate whether they are lying. Benefits staff use the
technology to suggest people whose claims need further
investigation.
The project was run in partnership with the Department of Work
and Pensions and Capita.
The council now plans to role out the technology across the
organisation. Councillor Jim Dickson, cabinet member for finance
and resources, said claimants would still be given the choice of
whether the technology is used on them or not.
Dickson said, "We will not be looking to use it with everyone.
It is people whose circumstances are known to change on a regular
basis. We can also predict when these changes are likely to occur -
for example people who are seasonal workers or who get annual pay
rises in April."
The council is also using the technology to identify people who
are under-claiming, redirecting funds to those who need them. The
benefits of 261 claimants were boosted during the trial.
Dickson admitted the technology can be wrong, but said the
lie-detector was only the start of an investigation into whether a
person is claiming correctly.
Lambeth is one of the first councils in the UK to trial VRA
technology. "We were very eager to try it," said Dickson. "It is
another tool in the council's ability to crack down on benefit
fraud."