Fraudsters make 900 attempts to access housing support fund pot set up for North Northants' poorest people

Criminals made 900 attempts to steal funds designed to help the county’s most vulnerable households with spiralling costs of living.

The first round of the Household Support Fund was in operation between December 2021 and March 2022 and was meant to provide food and fuel vouchers for the poorest households.

North Northamptonshire Council handed out about £100,000 of vouchers and a second round of vouchers and cash is now in operation.

But it’s been revealed fraudsters made 900 attempts to access the online application system during the first round of funding.

Thankfully, quick-thinking council staff spotted the scammers – and security has now been tightened-up.

A Freedom of Information request by this newspaper showed the fraud came from outside of Northamptonshire and no money was lost. The council said this was as a result of ‘manual controls and checks.’

They went on: “As we reviewed the volume of out of region applicants a change to the software was implemented which prevented any address being entered which was out of region. This was automated and therefore the applications were immediately rejected.

"We experienced a considerable decline in this type of attempts once the automated control was in place.”

An NNC spokesman said: “We did receive some applications from out of the county for the Household Support Fund but as officers were vigilant none were successful.

“If we were aware of fraud we would of course take appropriate action as we are keen to ensure that people in need are supported in these difficult times."