Fee snoops to check on fake grant claims

The introduction of university top-up fees will see the recruitment of a 3,000-strong army of inspectors to check that students are not falsely claiming hardship cash, it emerged today.

The inspectors, labelled "bursary snoops", will be used by local authorities at a cost of about £100million a year.

They will check that more than £1 billion a year of government funding is not being wrongly claimed by students whose family income is too high.

But local councils expect they will be given the responsibility of deciding who is eligible for grants - and of policing the funding regime.

The Higher Education Bill is designed to protect students from poorer households from the worst impact of variable fees of £3,000 a year. Those from families earning less than £15,970 a year will get annual grants of £2,700, with proportionately less help for those with higher incomes up to a cut-off point of £33,000.

Local authorities fear a return of the fraud which plagued the old system of maintenance grants before they were phased out in 1999.

Graham Lane, education chairman of the Local Government Association, said: "This time we will take on up to 3,000 people to check whether people are earning what they say."

The model will be "snooping visits" currently undertaken by independent schools to check whether pupils are legitimately claiming means-tested scholarships and other awards.

Teachers visit homes claiming they need to carry out an interview - and while they are there they check a list of indicators such as the value of a house and the cost of furnishings. If their suspicions are raised, further investigations are made.