A Disgrace

A Romanian woman who provided compatriots with fake documents to obtain National Insurance numbers and make illegal claims for state benefits totalling nearly £3 millions has been jailed for 27 months. A number of other Romanians were also given jail terms for their part in the scam.

Fraud of this size makes you wonder about the competence of those people responsible for checking benefit claims. Can’t their computers spot fraudulent National Insurance numbers?

The Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance is quoted as saying: ‘We need a reformed benefit system less vulnerable to this kind of abuse and the authorities need to explain how it could happen and how they will stop it happening. ... Finally, there need to be stiff punishments when criminals rip off taxpayers.’

He got that right!
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Where’s The Cash Now?

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Questions about cash are raised in a couple of stories this morning.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth about the alleged cricket fixing by members of the Pakistan cricket team increases in intensity day by day. If proved true, it is of course a disgrace and those involved should be dealt with appropriately.

At this time no-one has been charged with an offence. So what happens now to the £150,000 in ‘readies’ that the News of the World handed over to the alleged fixer?

Questions about cash have also been raised in Japan where officials took a closer look at Tokyo’s oldest man who had been drawing his pension until the age of 111. Alas for his daughter and granddaughter, who have now been arrested, it seems that the man in question died thirty years ago after his mummified remains were found last month.

Police are now looking to see what has happened to the nine million yen (around £68,500) he is said to have drawn for the last thirty years!
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Not In The Chorus!

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I am not part of the chorus of bleeding hearts protesting against government plans to stamp out benefit fraud by using the expertise of private agencies.

I pay my taxes and have no trouble whatsoever with private agencies having access to government databases of incapacity and housing benefit claimants thought to be fraudulent. I have no trouble with the prime minister’s call to members of the public to report suspected benefit cheats. And I definitely have no trouble at all with incapacity benefit claimants being required to undergo ‘fit to work’ medical checks, especially as it turns out that three out of four of them have been turned down since tougher rules were established in 2008.

An astonishing one in three of benefit claimants is suspected of making fraudulent claims at some point, and benefit fraud generally is currently estimated at costing the country in excess of five billion pounds. At the last count, there were around sixty-one million of us living in the United Kingdom. If we discount the six million people of working age who are claiming benefits, that’s £91 a year for every one of us who pay taxes. I’d rather save that rather than give it to fraudulent layabouts.

The prime minister also promises to crack down on the administrative errors that cost a further £1.5 billion. Good - that’s another £27 a year saved for each and every one of us!

One thing the government could do in my view is to put a cap on the benefits paid to families or those living together. That would put an immediate brake on such instances as the jobless Somerset couple with nine children who receive £3,500 each month in benefits. That’s a lot more than some families earn by working!

It is clear that the whole benefits system needs clearing up and simplifying. And, hopefully, this is the government that might be brave enough to do it.
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Benefit Fraud v Tax Evasion

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One of my correspondents has responded to one of my blogs and, since he makes a very good point, I quote it in full:

A small fortune is spent by the government in trying to stop the illegal practice of benefit fraud (you've all seen the TV ads!).

According to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, benefit fraud last year cost the public purse £800 million.

By comparison, HM Revenue & Customs announced that for 2008/9 it was unable to collect £40 billion due to tax evasion, fraud and flaws in the system. This was perpetrated by people who are the complete opposite to the genuine & desperate needy who rely on benefits.

£800 million against £40 billion - it makes you think, doesn't it?

I wonder when we will see TV ads to stop this greedy pilfering?
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