Twenty Ealing Council homes were recovered from people who were not entitled to live in them as part of Ealing Council fraud investigations that identified £1.44 million in actual and potential losses over the past year.
The investigations also led to housing and Right to Buy applications being refused, temporary accommodation being withdrawn, council tax fraud being identified and disciplinary action against six council workers.
A report presented to Ealing Council’s Audit Committee last Wednesday (22 July 2026) showed investigators completed 445 investigations between April 2025 and March 2026. They found fraud had taken place in 62 cases, resulting in 53 sanctions. The £1.44 million figure includes both money lost and losses prevented through those investigations.
Housing fraud accounted for many of the cases. As well as recovering 20 council homes, investigators refused eight tenancy applications and four Right to Buy applications. Separate checks on higher-risk succession applications also resulted in three more council homes being recovered and six succession applications being refused.
Ealing Council investigations also led to six temporary bed-and-breakfast placements being cancelled. Two people were convicted over offences involving a direct payment care package, while investigators identified more than £139,000 in council tax reduction overpayments for recovery. Six council tax discounts were also withdrawn and a £1,000 financial penalty was issued in a separate case.
Separate checks also led to 130 Blue Badges being cancelled and almost £795,000 in savings. Vetting of people applying to work for Ealing Council also identified 35 applications that failed or did not progress because of concerns including benefit and housing fraud, misleading employment histories, references that could not be verified and false qualifications. Seven suspected third-party cases were also referred for investigation.
The report also says six council workers received disciplinary penalties following investigations, although it does not give details of the cases or action taken.
An Ealing Council spokesperson told EALING.NEWS: “Fraud has a direct impact on our ability to support residents who are in genuine need, so we take a proactive approach to preventing, identifying and investigating wrongdoing. The recovery of 20 council homes and the identification of £1.44m in actual and potential losses during 2025/26 show the real impact of this work.
“Our fraud team works diligently to investigate suspicious cases, and we will always take the strongest action we can to deter others from committing the same acts.”
