{"id":753408,"date":"2026-02-09T20:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/753408\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T20:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:05:14","slug":"gordon-lyons-zero-tolerance-approach-to-benefit-fraud-only-way-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/753408\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordon Lyons: Zero-tolerance approach to benefit fraud only way forward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A staggering \u00a3350.3m was lost due to benefit fraud and error in 2024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/8cfba37f-8044-463b-b916-707970c2771b.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_caption1 beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_secondary beltel-66f0fec7_regular beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_marginleft0 beltel-1d70522a_marginright0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop3 beltel-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">A staggering \u00a3350.3m was lost due to benefit fraud and error in 2024<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Welfare fraud is not a victimless crime. When individuals cheat the system, they are taking support from those who need it most \u2014 family, friends, neighbours and their fellow citizens. This is why I am committed to a zero-tolerance approach. <\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">In 2024, 3.7% of benefit expenditure, a staggering \u00a3350.3m, was lost due to fraud and error.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A staggering \u00a3350.3m was lost due to benefit fraud and error in 2024 Welfare fraud is not a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[42497,1144,39255,16,15],"class_list":["post-753408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-gordon-lyons","tag-northern-ireland","tag-northern-ireland-assembly","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116042473437768207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}