The Audit Commission ‘s National Fraud Initiative (NFI) has helped prevent more than £1bn of public money being lost to fraud, overpayment or error in the last 17 years,  it has emerged.

Nearly 100,000 incidents of incorrectly awarded council tax single person discounts worth £160m have been identified.  Housing benefit overpayments worth £250m have also been spotted, resulting in 921 prosecutions.