Outcomes reported for Wales totalled £8.7 million. This is £1.6 million higher than in the previous NFI exercise and the highest reported across the last five exercises.

Since the NFI began in 1996, Welsh bodies have reported cumulative outcomes of £65.2 million. The largest reported outcomes came from data matching for council tax single person discounts, blue badges, and housing waiting lists.

A data match is only an indicator, so follow up work is needed before bodies draw any conclusions. Delays in following up data matches can reduce the effectiveness of the exercise. Potentially fraudulent activity, along with incorrect payments, discounts, and awards, may continue for longer, increasing losses and reducing opportunities to recover funds.

We found that, overall, bodies engaged better with the latest NFI exercise. However, there are still areas for improvement, including around the timeliness of follow-up work and how activity and outcomes are recorded. Some £1.1 million of the total outcomes reported came from corrections following our own review.

As well as helping to identify and prevent financial loss, the NFI delivers wider benefits. For example, public bodies told Audit Wales that it helps improve internal processes and controls, identify training needs, and raises the profile of fraud prevention and detection work.

One key benefit of a UK-wide data matching exercise is that it enables matches between organisations across national borders. Data submitted by Welsh bodies has also been linked with £2.1 million of outcomes reported by public bodies elsewhere in the UK.