How does the govt have 500m spare? This money should be used to try maximise NHS capacity (or sort a home remedy program) for the milder Omicron variant. In what world is it a better idea to curb civil liberties instead?
Does the benefits fraud include the massive benefits given to Tory donors?
Or would that be far above the £8 billion quoted here? And easier to go after the little fish than Tory peers, I guess…
> For 2019-20 the government’s benefit fraud figure was £2.3bn (1.2%) for benefits administered by the Department of Work and Pensions. The tax credit system, administered by HMRC, has combined error and fraud figures (net over-payment) for 2015-16 of £1.35 billion or 4.8% of finalised tax credit entitlement. HMRC claim that “the vast majority of organised fraud claims are stopped quickly and awards in payment are terminated.”
Could they not spend it on tax avoidance?
Wonder how much is missing there
I’d be interested to understand what makes up that £8bn fraud figure.
Is it for example made up of 4 million people misrepresenting their circumstances and getting £40 extra a week in benefits. Or is it 20,000 serious fraudsters getting 400k a year somehow?
If it’s the former then I think government should seriously think about not bothering about stopping it.
The fiscal stimulus it would be providing to the economy would be well worth that level of leakage from the system and fraud at that level isn’t providing any of the perpetrators with lifestyle changing advantage.
Edit: just realised I’ve responded to a post without taking the time to read the underlying news article. Maybe my answer in there but I’m about to go into a meeting. I’ll check later. Apologies.
Going back many many years. I was overpaid benefit. I wrote to the dwp and called them. Nothing was done. Eventually got a job and moved on with my life. Until I got a debt collectors letter. Took an age to sort it out and get it written off as they denied recieving any letters and phone calls .
Luckily I had itemized phone bills and receipts of recorded letters.got written off as an admin error
What about the 57 billion in fraud that took place over covid PPE procurement? That going to get investigated at all or is it okay because it went to the “right” people? (tory donors, obviously).
Fun fact, £500m is also the cost the government is paying to further delay finalising the rollout of Universal Credits. Yes UC that was supposed to be live in 2017 still isn’t actually fully implemented and won’t be for at least 2 more years. That brings the cost of the transfer scheme up to something like £1.4Bn. UC was over budget by around £4Bn to £6Bn before it ever paid its first claimant. Creating UC has cost around £20Bn I believe.
All this money and all these delays and they never made plans to stop fraud. It is well documented that the IT System was inadequate despite costing billions more than it should. The system was never made to do anything but punish the poor and disabled.
8 comments
How does the govt have 500m spare? This money should be used to try maximise NHS capacity (or sort a home remedy program) for the milder Omicron variant. In what world is it a better idea to curb civil liberties instead?
Does the benefits fraud include the massive benefits given to Tory donors?
Or would that be far above the £8 billion quoted here? And easier to go after the little fish than Tory peers, I guess…
£8.4bn is a [huge rise.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefit_fraud_in_the_United_Kingdom#cite_note-Reporting_benefit_fraud.-1)
> For 2019-20 the government’s benefit fraud figure was £2.3bn (1.2%) for benefits administered by the Department of Work and Pensions. The tax credit system, administered by HMRC, has combined error and fraud figures (net over-payment) for 2015-16 of £1.35 billion or 4.8% of finalised tax credit entitlement. HMRC claim that “the vast majority of organised fraud claims are stopped quickly and awards in payment are terminated.”
Could they not spend it on tax avoidance?
Wonder how much is missing there
I’d be interested to understand what makes up that £8bn fraud figure.
Is it for example made up of 4 million people misrepresenting their circumstances and getting £40 extra a week in benefits. Or is it 20,000 serious fraudsters getting 400k a year somehow?
If it’s the former then I think government should seriously think about not bothering about stopping it.
The fiscal stimulus it would be providing to the economy would be well worth that level of leakage from the system and fraud at that level isn’t providing any of the perpetrators with lifestyle changing advantage.
Edit: just realised I’ve responded to a post without taking the time to read the underlying news article. Maybe my answer in there but I’m about to go into a meeting. I’ll check later. Apologies.
Going back many many years. I was overpaid benefit. I wrote to the dwp and called them. Nothing was done. Eventually got a job and moved on with my life. Until I got a debt collectors letter. Took an age to sort it out and get it written off as they denied recieving any letters and phone calls .
Luckily I had itemized phone bills and receipts of recorded letters.got written off as an admin error
What about the 57 billion in fraud that took place over covid PPE procurement? That going to get investigated at all or is it okay because it went to the “right” people? (tory donors, obviously).
Fun fact, £500m is also the cost the government is paying to further delay finalising the rollout of Universal Credits. Yes UC that was supposed to be live in 2017 still isn’t actually fully implemented and won’t be for at least 2 more years. That brings the cost of the transfer scheme up to something like £1.4Bn. UC was over budget by around £4Bn to £6Bn before it ever paid its first claimant. Creating UC has cost around £20Bn I believe.
All this money and all these delays and they never made plans to stop fraud. It is well documented that the IT System was inadequate despite costing billions more than it should. The system was never made to do anything but punish the poor and disabled.