Why they are a problem for the public sector | UK News

Efforts are being made by the public sector to crack down on staff who work multiple different jobs at the same time, in secret.

The practice, known as polygamous working, has arguably become more prevalent with the growth in remote working but it can be potentially unlawful depending on your employment contract.

The Cabinet Office told London that since 2016, their national anti-fraud initiative caught out 301 employees in the public sector and recovered £1.35m in salary payment. In a recent case, a council worker was convicted of fraud for having two full time jobs at two London councils.

I spoke to someone who worked multiple secret jobs in the past and found out what councils and the government are doing to curb this trend and the implications it has on public services.

Imtiaz Shams, in his mid-thirties and CEO of a tech start-up, worked as a public sector finance assistant in his gap year, saving his £16,000 annual salary for university fees.

At the same time, unbeknownst to his employer, he was also working a second job in the private sector.

“My job was boring. I automated a lot of stuff on Excel. I was on Reddit all day,” he said.

“So I did a side contract…I made some money. They were happy they got someone who was automating their systems.”

Imtiaz admits it was not right, adding: “I shouldn’t have worked there but I wasn’t paid well enough to feel bad. That’s why I left.”

Imtiaz now works in the private tech sector, where he actively encourages his employees to do something outside the company.

“Why? Because I want them to be happy. Good people are hungry. Where there’s a problem is if they’re not delivering for me.

“In tech, we’re paid well. We can live in London. I think with council workers and social workers, you can see the struggle.”

While polygamous working is not inherently illegal, it could potentially break contracts, and could lead to dismissal for gross misconduct or in some cases, a fraud prosecution.

Kaajal Nathwani, an employment lawyer at Osborne & Wise, says that while there is currently no formal legal definition of polygamous working, it’s a “new phenomenon”.

She described it as a “trend of holding down multiple secret jobs…made popular on TikTok, Instagram”.

She added: “It’s not illegal, per se, it’s not fraudulent, per se, on the face of it, but it can be unlawful if a contract stipulates that an individual is not to hold down another job, or have another form of employment.”

She said it could also breach implied term of mutual trust and confidence in an employment relationship “irrespective of it being set out on paper in a contract of employment”.

“In addition to that, there may be implications of breaches of confidentiality, data protection that arise,” added Nathwani.

“There’s also the question of whether or not you are fully able to devote your time and attention, to performing a role if you are carrying out multiple jobs and multiple roles throughout the day.”

She said polygamous working is different to moonlighting, “which is used to describe someone having a side hustle or side job whilst being employed in a full time job, usually kept secret and done often at night – hence moonlighting”.

Nathwani says historically, contracts were not as definitive in terms of not permitting employees to allow second jobs, but is now becoming “more and more prevalent”.

Public sector jobs are funded by taxpayers’ money to provide a wide range of local and national services – such as social workers whose responsibilities can include protecting vulnerable children at risk of harm or civil servants working for large government departments.

As the government puts it: “Millions of people work hard, pay their taxes, and contribute to their communities. The government owes it to them to ensure decency and respect, and to hold every single person who cheats the system to account.”

HMRC can pick up multiple incomes but it focuses on tax compliance and does not have the full picture.

To address this issue, the government’s National Fraud Initiative (NFI) is taking data from several different bodies matching payroll, pension and benefits data to spot inconsistencies.

It has so far identified 301 cases since 2016 where employees have been dismissed or resigned in the UK, 256 of these in England.

So far in the 2024-25 financial year, they have identified 13 cases of polygamous working, which has saved £113,000 in recoverable savings.

Barnet Council is one of the pilot councils for the NFI and prosecuted an individual for fraud last year for working full time at two London councils at the same time, recovering £10,000.

Cabinet member for Financial Sustainability, Simon Radford, says polygamous working is a “great example of where people are abusing and wasting taxpayers’ money and we won’t tolerate that”.

He says while home working has lots of benefits, “it has made a difference” to polygamous working, in terms of people not being on video camera and not being available when they claim they are.

This reflects what Imtiaz observed in his former job.

“I knew there was one person who wasn’t coming to the office at all – basically doing childcare – and they were getting paid. It’s rampant in the public sector. So it’s a problem,” he said.

In August last year, social worker Beatrice Eduah fraudulently worked at three different councils at the same time was told she would have to pay back one of her employers.

Eduah, 42, of Jaric Lane, Brampton, Cambridgeshire, had been employed as an agency worker at Suffolk County Council’s adult social care team.

Imtiaz believes a lot of public sector workers “are not paid well enough” and the government is trying to “punish people for what is a broken system”.

Radford said: “We can never truly know the motives behind the cases of polygamous working, but we do know that Barnet Council pay is generally competitive in our sector. Regardless of what you are paid in the public or private sector, fraudulent polygamous working is a crime.”

Imtiaz has also said what bothers him is “the people at the higher levels will get away with it”.

He added: “It’s the lower and middle paid workers who need the money that are being chased for this. It doesn’t feel right to me to be honest.”

However Radford disagreed and said this was not the case.

“If someone is polygamously working, we will prosecute them,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re top of the tree or the lower branches, it’s something we have zero tolerance for. It’s something I don’t recognise.”

Radford also refuted concerns about the productivity of the sector.

He said: “I think there’s an old cliché, right, that in the public sector people don’t work as hard as the private sector.

“I think what this shows is that people when they don’t work as hard as they are meant to for taxpayers’ money, people ask questions and they get caught.”

Barnet council has a number of other ongoing fraud cases involving polygamous workers.

Alex Burghart MP, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has accused the government of not properly monitoring second jobs and outside roles in the civil service.

He said: “Hard-working taxpayers expect efficiency and transparency from the public sector, yet Labour has overseen a bloated system that operates in secrecy.”

Cabinet Office Minister Josh Simons said: “Fraudsters claiming multiple public sector salaries are undermining public trust.

“Through the National Fraud Initiative (NFI), we are working with councils to root out these polygamous workers. By matching payroll, pension, and benefits data nationwide, we are spotting the inconsistencies that criminals try to hide.

“We brought 14 government departments to take part in the exercise for the first time. Users of our Fraud Hub database, which includes records of staff dismissed for fraud to ensure they don’t get a new job in government, have risen by 30%.”

He added that the government wanted to go further – and expanded data-matching was under way “to target these risks even more aggressively”.

While working from home has lowered the practical barriers to “polygamous working,” growing scrutiny from local authorities and government suggests those working two jobs in secret may not be able to get away with it as easily as they once did.