Thursday June 18th 2026
Glasgow City Chambers
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Catherine Hunter
Concerns over the increase in the number of fraudulent homeless applications submitted to Glasgow City Council have been raised by a local councillor.
During 2025/26 the local authority recorded 326 whistleblowing incidents – an increase from the previous year – with reports of council tax, misuse of grant funding and tenancy fraud amongst the issues documented.
In 2025/26, the CFI (Corporate Fraud Investigations) team identified savings of over £1.77 million for the council and wider public purse, an increase of £1.5 million from 2024/25.
A report presented to members of the finance and scrutiny committee revealed that there has been an increase in referrals for both fraudulent homelessness applications and blue badge use.
Since 2024 the council have investigated, or are in the process of investigating, 22,161 instances of fraud.
They prioritise the higher priority matches in the first instance and then move onto the other priorities thereafter.
The council’s whistleblowing facility exists to report any fraud or wrongdoing a member of the public reasonably believes is taking place within Glasgow City Council.
Examples include bribery, corruption, blue badge misuse, misuse of council equipment and issues relating to information security and council tax reduction scheme fraud.
Councillor Dan Hutchison said: “The report states that last year for the false homeless applications last year was £1.19 million and this year is £1.69 million.
“Is that the level of fraud or is that how much fraud has been stopped? Any further information would be really helpful.”
A council officer said: “My understanding is that there is a calculation that is done depending on the numbers that come in depending on the numbers that come in terms of false homelessness applications but I will double check that.
“I will provide an update on that but it depends on how many potential false applications come through from social work for us to look at and then determine.”
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