Policing Welfare: Local Authority Responses to Claimant Fraud in the Housing Benefit Scheme

Abstract

This paper is one of a series examining the role of administrative law in structuring administrative decision-making within the Housing Benefit scheme.1 As such, it follows an established tradition of socio-legal studies of governmental discretion.2 However, these papers focus particularly on the inter-relationship between party politics and bureaucratic acceptance of administrative law constraints. Earlier papers have studied aspects of the scheme where administrative discretion is clearly bounded by statutory constraints. Empirical evidence suggests that traditional administrative law principles play a limited role in determining either the procedures or substantive outcomes of decision-making processes.3 Somewhat ironically, given recent denunciations by the Government of Labour councils as opponents of the rule of law, the studies suggest that Conservative councils pay least attention to legal limits on their decision-making autonomy.4 However, less visible factors within the decision-making environment also have considerable influence on administrative behaviour. The articles are