Extra funding for the council to combat housing benefit fraud in the self-employment sector which has seen rapid growth since 2011. Oldham is to receive the second highest rate of new government funding in Greater Manchester behind the city of Manchester, the extra cash is to help reduce fraudulent housing benefit claims within the self-employed community. The system will be based on checking those who have static declared earnings from one year to the next. This latest attempt to reduce fraud comes after the introduction of new benefit rules in April 2016, designed to reduce the high volume of Jobcentre Plus claimants who were declared in work (in self-employment) but who were earning so little through their businesses that they were claiming large amounts of Tax Credits. Those rule changes meant that the Jobcentre Plus offices would undertake more checks to ensure that people are ‘Gainfully Self Employed’
Here’s a link to the government article about this extra money