BEXLEY Council is using controversial “lie detector” technology to decide if people are entitled to benefits.

It is withdrawing them from some, including pensioners, if a telephone interview using the voice risk analysis (VRA) system suggests people are lying.

Maureen Coulson, 66, was caught up in a council review confirming people receiving the single person discount council tax reduction, are still entitled.

Mrs Coulson, from Bexleyheath, has been claiming the discount for the past three years.

She told News Shopper about her experience of VRA.

Out of the blue, she received a letter from the council to arrange a telephone interview to discuss her discount.

Mrs Coulson said: “I thought it was a good thing if it caught people cheating.”

The caller asked if she lived on her own.

“I said ‘yes’ but explained my daughter’s post is still delivered here although she pays council tax where she now lives in Belvedere.”

Mrs Coulson heard nothing more until she received a computerised letter saying she was no longer entitled to a discount.

Even worse, she was told the council would automatically increase her monthly payment from £156 to £264 and was expecting her to pay back the discount she had already been given, back to 2007.

Mrs Coulson said: “I was shocked. I have always paid my bills on time. I have never done anything wrong.”

She went to appeal at Erith town hall.

She said: “They told me ‘don’t worry, lots of people have had them’, but I couldn’t understand why the council didn’t believe I lived on my own.”

Then she received demands for back payment of the £1,500 discount.

Mrs Coulson decided to stand her ground.

She cancelled her direct debit and paid the next £156 payment in cash and continued her visits to Erith, asking who was supposed to be living with her.

But she could not get an answer.

Then she received a demand for payment of the rest of the £264 within seven days.

Mrs Coulson said: “I went back to Erith and told them I was not going anywhere until someone told me what I had done wrong.

“I was shaking and on the verge of tears.

“They told me they had done a credit check and someone called Ann Coulson had applied for credit, using the house.”

Mrs Coulson said: “I don’t know any Ann Coulson and her date of birth was almost identical to mine.”

Unable to sleep with worry, she logged onto the council website in the early hours one morning and poured out her feelings in an emailed complaint.

Last Wednesday she got a letter from Bexley saying a credit check and VRA had determined she was at high risk of lying about living on her own, but after further checks Bexley had changed its mind and reinstated the benefit.”

It apologised for any inconvenience.

Mrs Coulson said her son did a credit check on her and found nothing suspicious.

She said: “I am blooming mad and I still haven’t had any explanation why.

“Big Brother has got me. It ruined my summer and my birthday and I know at least one other person who has had the same experience.”

Bexley was a pilot for VRA for the government last year and is awaiting evaluation of the trial.

It continues to use VRA, but only for single person council tax discounts.

A spokeswoman said: “It has widespread use in the insurance industry and is seen as a useful instrument in preventing fraud.”

She said the council was obliged to check single person discounts under the National Fraud Initiative.