Combatting fraud against the public sector 2023

One-off data share between HMRC and Student Loans Company (SLC) to combat fraud against the public sector

Details

This agreement is published as part of the Code of Practice for public authorities disclosing information under chapters 1, 3 and 4 (Public Service Delivery, Debt and Fraud) of part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017.

The purpose of the pilot is to identify the level of fraud within an area of the student finance population. In particular, investigating fraudulent student finance applications from migrant worker, where the student is only eligible for student finance if they meet the eligibility requirements, one of which is to be employed while in study.

HMRC considers that the disclosure of information to Student Loans Company (SLC) is necessary and proportionate to assist SLC in their role of preventing and detecting fraud within Student Finance applications. It will allow for potential early identification and prevention of fraud, help to minimise financial loss and to increase the efficiency of these investigations.