In an aggressive scheme to clamp down on instances of benefit fraud, the UK government is providing £1.5 million GBP (approx. $3 million USD) in funding to help increase the spread of lie-detector technology throughout local authorities.
UK government funds lie-detector technolgy that helps curb benefit fraud. Image: Wikipedia Commons.
The telephone-based technology, which UK ministers believe has already helped collar 10,000 cheats, works by enabling trained operators to monitor the voice patterns of benefit applicants for telltale stress levels as they answer a series of questions.
It is hoped that the government’s cash infusion will help save the country around £30 million GBP in fraudulent benefit claims each year by boosting the current coverage of the Voice Risk Analysis (VRA) technology from seven local authorities through to a much more effective 22.
Extension of the lie-detector system was officially announced by UK anti-fraud minister James Plaskitt during a visit to a local authority in London that saved almost half a million pounds in benefit claims by piloting the VRA technology.
“This positive and encouraging news from the pilots shows that this technology is helping [in] combating benefit fraud. It is also making it quicker and easier to review claims, especially for those people who are genuinely entitled to benefits,” outlined Mr. Plaskitt.
“Overall, the huge majority of people who receive benefits are entitled to them. However, there is a minority who will still try to steal money from those people who are most vulnerable,” he added. “We need to continue to do more to make sure that taxpayers’ money always goes to those who need it most.”
VRA technology spots changes in a caller’s voice enabling trained operators to decide whether a call is high or low risk and what further action to take. Initial results from the initial pilot schemes have shown that the risk-ratings made using VRA have been successful. Of the cases rated as high risk, an estimated 30 percent identified a change that wouldn’t have otherwise been detected in a standard one-on-one call.
Calls assisted by the VRA system are conducted by operators trained in intelligent questioning and various forms of behavioural analysis, which duly allows them to better assess levels of risk in applicant conversations.
The technology specifically analyses changes in voice frequency, performing thousands of mathematical calculations that result in the identification of different categories of emotional content. The patterns associated with these categories then allow the separate genuine callers from fraudulent callers.
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment!
Advertising
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment!