FRAUDSTERS in Oxford raked in almost £1.28m in the past financial year from the public purse.

The number of detected cases in the city, including council tax and housing benefit fraud, was five times higher than in 19 neighbouring areas it was compared to.

Of the 970 cases, more than 500 cases were of housing benefit or council tax benefit fraud totalling £619,000.

Council investigations officers have warned it is one of the fastest growing areas of crime, as the authority prepares to pool its resources with neighbours to set up a countywide “fraud hub”. But community organisations said it was harder than ever to claim benefits and the stigma that many claimants were scamming public money was wrong.

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Clare Charleson, manager of the Blackbird-Leys based Agnes Advice Centre, said: “Many people here find it very difficult to claim benefits and wouldn’t know where to start, it is a very confusing system.

“More often than not, they are not receiving everything they could be. The way benefits fraud is reported is often unfair on the average benefits claimant and not representative.

“Plenty of the people we deal with have worked all their lives but suddenly had a change of circumstances and were forced to go onto benefits just to survive.”

The city council said about 22,000 people were claiming housing benefit or council tax reductions last year.

But senior councillors said they do not know why the levels of detected fraud were higher in Oxford than in other areas.

In the figures presented to the audit and governance committee, the city was compared to 19 similar areas, including the other four districts in Oxfordshire.

As part of efforts to tackle the problem, Ed Turner, city council deputy leader and executive member for finance, said a new county-wide “fraud hub” would be set up.

Cllr Turner said: “We have been proactive in going after fraudsters and our team is very switched on, but I don’t think we will ever know whether more fraud is committed here or if we are better at detecting it. But we will continue to vigorously pursue fraud.”

The new Oxford Fraud Hub will detect council tax fraud and business rates fraud, as well as right-to-buy fraud, tenancy fraud and illegally sub-letting social housing.

It will include the city council, Oxfordshire County Council and West Oxfordshire, Vale of the White Horse and South Oxfordshire district councils.

The £488,000 funding is being provided by the Government.

Housing benefit is paid by councils to people on low incomes who need help to pay rent.

Council home tenants have it deducted straight from their rent while private tenants have it paid into their bank accounts.

Although councils currently administer payments, the Government has said it eventually wants to bring it under the Universal Credit system.

City Council head of finance Nigel Kennedy said last year nine people were prosecuted for fraud-related offences, with five receiving fines and 41 getting formal cautions.

Audit and governance committee chairman James Fry said: “In times of budget stringency, detecting and securing repayment of fraudulent claims is particularly important.”