Lie detector cuts council benefits bill

A London council has saved £336,000 by using lie detectors to catch benefit cheats.

The tests work by having trained operators analyse changes to claimants' voices when they are on the telephone.

During a £63,000 pilot scheme, Harrow council found that when people were told their conversations were being analysed, a quarter said their situation had changed and they no longer needed to claim the benefit.

According to Harrow, of 998 people assessed using the technology, 119 were said to be "high risk" and 43 of these were found to have been incorrectly paid benefit. The £336,711.39 saving was made up of £284,461.67 in housing benefit and £52,249.72 in council tax benefit.

Only five per cent of people refused to use the technology when told Harrow was piloting the voice risk analysis system as part of an initiative by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Paul Osborn, chief of strategy at Harrow council, said: "As well as saving money on potentially fraudulent cases, this technology enables us to make sure that the majority of law-abiding citizens who are entitled to help get their benefits quicker."