Fraud Investigator

Job summary

Do you have an interest in dealing with criminal investigations and/or law enforcement? Are you interested in helping vulnerable people by tackling criminal activity? Are you motivated to deliver the right outcomes in challenging situations? The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) could be the place for you.

This is a hugely important public service, and our challenge is greater than ever. DWP's Economic, Serious and Organised Crime (ESOC) Team is the arm of DWP's Counter Fraud, Compliance and Debt Directorate that deals with complex and sophisticated attacks on DWP benefit and grant payments - usually by Organised Crime Groups.

DWP are looking for people with an interest in investigations to help tackle organised criminality against DWP through prosecution and/or disruption activities.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Counter Fraud, Compliance and Debt (CFCD) Directorate on a team committed to tackling fraud, encountered through our Economic and Serious Organised Crime (ESOC) team. You will be at the forefront of tackling serious and organised crimes against DWP, which often has links into wider criminality of modern slavery, human trafficking, and identity fraud.

You will work across multiple law enforcement agencies, on high profile and serious fraud operations involving many suspects in multi-million-pound criminality.

Additionally, as work streams change and DWP reacts to the changing behaviours in criminal activity, investigators must keep pace with modern methods of criminality: this includes the increase in money laundering activity and the use of crypto currencies to mask monies derived from fraudulent activity.

ESOC Threats and Prioritisation Involve: 

• Modern Slavery / Human Trafficking – vulnerable people exploited to abuse the benefit system.  
• Web Enabled Fraud – Universal Credit (UC) and other online frauds on an industrial scale.  
• Insider Threat – internal abuse of position to facilitate fraud.
• Identity Fraud – large scale use of false and hijacked identities to attack the welfare system.  
• Organised Economic Crime – large scale abuse of the system including organised criminals setting up fake / shell companies providing false invoices / payslips to claim benefits and payments.

Additionally, as work streams change and DWP reacts to the changing behaviours in criminal activity, the ESOC investigators must keep pace with modern methods of criminality, this includes the use of crypto currencies to mask monies derived from fraudulent activity. 

Job description

DWP is the lead agency for tackling economic serious and organised criminality against the welfare system. DWP’s ESOC investigators are part of a national team with geographical representation throughout the UK. We are responsible for, and are committed to detecting, preventing, dismantling and prosecuting organised criminals facilitating benefit offences and abuse. Serious offenders often receive substantial custodial sentences.    

The role of ESOC is primarily to investigate fraud in the welfare system perpetuated by organised criminal groups. This mostly involves working across multiple law enforcement agencies on high profile and serious fraud operations involving multiple suspects in multi-million-pound criminality.   

Key Tasks Include:  

• Working directly to an Officer in Charge (OiC) of a criminal investigation. 
• Undertaking interviews under caution in accordance with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE). 
• Submitting prosecution files in accordance with Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and National File Standard guidance.
• Undertaking tasks as directed by an OiC to support the progression of investigations, including, but not exclusively, as listed. 
• Researching a variety of information / intelligence sources and collating relevant information that will be required for investigation and evaluating information in accordance with legislation and guidance. 
• Completing and approving Requests for Information (RFIs) as required. 
• To record, retain and review material collected during the course of the criminal investigation for disclosure purposes – such as banking information, benefit systems, CCTV footage and statements from witnesses. 
• To understand the need for a range of interventions, including ‘prevention’, ‘disruption’ and ‘prosecution’ in ESOC investigations and work with DWP colleagues to reduce and stop further benefit loss.
• To handle sensitive and confidential information appropriately, ensuring all information / evidence is processed in accordance with legislation and guidance. 
• To attend court hearings as directed by the OiC or to assist the OiC. 
• To complete Disclosure Schedules as advised by the OiC, providing CPS with schedules of any unused material and identifying any material that undermines the case for the prosecution or assists the case for the defence. 
• To process enquiries / applications in line with established procedures for handling and disclosure of information relevant to court proceedings. 
• To prepare information for disclosure and disseminate to CPS within agreed timescales. 
• To apply initiative and knowledge gained in the handling of complex enquiries. 
• To quickly respond to emerging threats by disrupting live attempts to defraud DWP benefit systems.
• To demonstrate a strong commitment to delivering a high standard of service at all times by managing own workload, prioritising to ensure all deadlines are met. 
• To be aware of the Unit’s objectives and ensure maintenance of, and adherence to, quality standards, service level agreements and customer requirements, highlighting areas for improvement where appropriate. 

Person specification

• A flexible, agile outlook and approach. 
• Innovation, drive and creative thinking.  
• Honesty, integrity and probity. 
• A personal demeanour that inspires confidence and loyalty. 
• Be a team player and able to work as part of an investigation team.
• Ability to provide excellent customer service.  
• Ability to work in a challenging and rewarding environment and ensure actions are completed in a timely manner.  
• You can drive work forward at pace, maintaining momentum and delivering high-quality outcomes within challenging timescales.
• You can research and understand complex information, taking responsibility for making effective decisions while being able to explain how they were reached in a clear and concise way.   
• You can demonstrate clear and concise communication skills; using a variety of communication methods including digital and telephony with the ability to express ideas, adding value to ways of working.   
• You can develop effective relationships with key stakeholders and organisations, working collaboratively with colleagues within teams and across the organisation.  
• You display strong IT skills to enable navigation of a range of computer systems and software packages.  

Travel Requirements

You will be required to attend:  

• Briefings and operational planning with external stakeholders such as Police, Lawyers, Barristers.  
• Interviews under Caution.  
• Attendance at Court as required.  
• Business and private addresses to obtain witness statements.

Successful candidates will need to be able to travel, retrieve evidence and be available at short notice. Due to the nature of the role this could be at any location nationally and during unsociable hours (both night/day and weekends). A departmental vehicle OR hire car may be made available if you hold a full UK driving licence.

Learning Requirements

To apply for this post all candidates must be willing to attain, or already hold, at least one of the following:    

• Accredited Counter Fraud Investigations Program (ACFIP).
• Counter Fraud Investigator Apprenticeship (CFIA).
• An equivalent such as PINs (Professionalism in Security).  
• SAO accreditation via the National Crime Agency.

DWP endorses the use of apprenticeships and successful candidates meeting the Counter Fraud Investigator Apprenticeship (CFIA) eligibility criteria will be required to complete this learning programme and achieve the level 4 award (as a condition of their appointment). CFIA includes face to face learning elements which the applicant needs to be aware could require them to travel outside of daily travelling times and incur overnight stays away from home. 

More details on what is involved in this learning can be found in the link below: 

Counter fraud investigator / Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education   

Candidates are strongly advised to familiarise themselves with the requirements of this learning. You must be willing to attain the appropriate accreditation to undertake the technical functions of the role. This may be attained through completion of a qualification or apprenticeship.

Where a qualification is not achieved, it would not be possible to fulfil the role requirements and candidates will be redeployed, within CFCD where possible, following Workforce Management Policy and Procedures. If you have questions about equivalent qualifications, please contact the vacancy holder. 

Government Counter Fraud Profession (GCFP)

The DWP is committed to investing in people and ensuring their teams are a professional workforce. It is a requirement of counter fraud post holders within DWP to attain, and retain, membership of the Government Counter Fraud Profession (GCFP) at Practitioner level. This means if you are successful in applying for this role you will need to undertake an annual self-assessment to evidence your knowledge, skills, and experience within your role to attain and retain practitioner level membership. We provide post holders with a learning routeway to support them in achieving as well as any workplace adjustments they may require. Failure to attain membership of the GCFP at practitioner level may result in DWP seeking an alternative role for you.

In applying you will have indicated that you have read and fully understood the professional requirements for this Counter Fraud Investigator role.

Civil Service Careers

The attached link will take you to the Counter Fraud, Compliance and Debt website which gives you further information about these roles. CFCD , Civil Service Careers

Essential Security Criteria 

Please note that the role that you are applying requires National Security Vetting (NSV) to the level – Security Check (SC).  You can find more information at United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . If you are successful in your application, you will need to attain SC clearance before you can take up post.  This is mandatory and is in addition to completion of Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS).

The purpose of the NSV process is to provide a level of assurance about an individual’s trustworthiness, integrity and reliability, and other factors that increase their vulnerability to corruption or risk of committing a security breach. It involves the investigation of an individual’s background and circumstances to achieve this aim.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Candidates are required to meet the UK residency requirements so that National Security Vetting (NSV) checks can be conducted. Depending on the level of NSV required, you must have resided continuously in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years, 2 of which must have been the immediately preceding years from the point of applying for this job.

The application process will ask for personal details about you, your address history, previous relationships, your parents, your employment history, your financial circumstances, and details of any pending, spent or unspent conviction