City of York Council is backing a new Government initiative to promote joint working between local authorities and the Benefits Agency to fight benefits fraud.

The initiative has received a national cash injection amounting to £6m and locally eleven councils, together with Benefits Agency staff across the North and East Yorkshire region, will be allocated a slice of the money to boost the fight against fraud.

Already, a board of representatives from all the local authorities including City of York Council has been set up to oversee operations utilising the money available.

Part of the money is being used to fund the position of an officer to co-ordinate these activities which are expected to generate a high number of savings to the public purse and prosecutions against those found defrauding the system.

This initiative will build on previous work by City of York Council both on its own and with neighbouring authorities like Ryedale, Selby and Scarborough.

Robert Beane, the council's internal audit manager, said, "We welcome this new initiative and the new money to fight housing benefit and council tax fraud.

"This will complement our on-going work to prosecute offenders and recover fiddled benefits. The council is fully committed to helping people claim the benefits to which they are entitled and we actively promote benefits take up. However, we are equally determined to crack down on cheats."

David Ponton-Brown, joint chair of the operational board which is coordinating the campaign locally, said, "With the large area covered it is imperative for local authorities and the Benefits Agency to work together to stamp out fraud.

"By a coordinated approach and by deploying a joint multi-agency taskforce to target certain key areas we aim to ensure benefits are correctly paid to genuine claimants but will expect and encourage effective sanctions against benefit cheats."

Since gaining new powers to take prosecutions directly to the courts City of York Council has secured a number of successful prosecutions over the last 18 months and recovers around £200,000 in fiddled benefits each year. Last year the council dealt with 250 cases.

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