BENEFITS fraudsters were paid more than £200,000 last year, figures published by Castle Point Council reveal.

The council handed people who were fraudulently claiming housing and council tax benefit £220,692 for 2014/15.

As a result, the authority successfully prosecuted 13 residents in the last year for overpayments of £162,473.

The benefits were wrongly claimed for a range of reasons, including failure to declare a change in circumstances or deception.

Canvey Island Independent councillor Dave Blackwell, a member of the council’s audit committee, said: “It’s the fact that there’s got to be something seriously wrong with the system if we can continue to overpay these people and then have to chase them to get it back.”

The council’s fraud team was told to issue 20 sanctions – which could involve losing allowances – and close 250 investigations over the last year.

The team managed to issue 23 sanctions and closed 409 cases.

Dave Blackwell, a member of the council’s audit committee, criticised the system, but said if people knew they were getting more cash than they should, they should own up.

He said: “At the end of the day, if you’re on benefit, you know howmuch you get.

“It costs a lot of time and effort and I can’t understand how that much money can be overpaid.

“I’m sure the council claims it back from the Government but it’s not the point, it is public money. It’s something they need to get on top of, it’s a joke.”

A spokeswoman for Castle Point Council said: “The council actively attempts to recover all benefit overpayments.

“The benefit overpayment can be caused by a number of circumstances, a customer failing to inform the council of a change in circumstances, a customer committing deception in not informing the council of a change, error in the benefit assessment due to misinformation, local authority error, data matching from other agencies.

“The council cannot recover benefit overpayments where the overpayment is due to the council’s error.

“Fraud is not a victimless crime. It affects everyone in the community if people are getting public money they are not entitled to. Castle Point Council treats benefit fraud very seriously and will take action on anyone claiming benefits to which they are not entitled.”