Record level of benefits 'stolen'

[Enuff]

What about the billions in unclaimed benefits?

One case in this report revealed a Lincolnshire man was receiving council tax benefit, income support, incapacity benefit and disability living allowance, while running a market stall and sitting on savings of more than £100,000.

Link

[peanutkp]

I was wondering when the next benefit thread will appear especially after last nights Panorama.

I have to say I'm a bit peed off with their portrayal of 'the normal' sick person. The pick the worse hotspot (a town in Wales), where just about everyone is on the sick, then gave the impression most could work, but in a town where high unemployement dues to the closure of the mines it was a disaster waiting to happen. But what it didn't show was the real sick and the way they are represented. What about other side of the fence?

There are many that are robbing the system blind but they also seem to get away with it some how. But at the same time, all the legit sick people get tarnished with the same brush. It seems the legit are the ones that will get penalised the most out of all this.

[WHISTLED]

It seems the legit are the ones that will get penalised the most out of all this.

I watched it and thats not what I thought - Although it was one community they showed some blaggers and some genuine(ish), they also pointed out that after a peiod of blagging it becomes more difficult to get them back into work as they develop a fear f entering the work place.

The genuine ones will see a goverment doctor who I trust will be fully qualified - If they determine people are fit to work that good enough for me.

I'm happy for people incapable of doing any work receiving benifits. There are a lot of jobs.. I dont see why someone with a genuine chronic knee problem cannot do basic admin, even if thats filling envelopes.

[peanutkp]

Originally Posted by WHISTLED

The genuine ones will see a goverment doctor who I trust will be fully qualified - If they determine people are fit to work that good enough for me.
.

I hope that is the case, but mostly people are judged by someone in a suit that don't even see the person in person. Also some of these doctors tend to have targets to meet and can deem the most sick fit enough to work. Hopefully this do change and even though the test might be more stringent, I hope it's also more fair.

The rest I do agree with though. There is a clear difference to being disabled and being sick which often people do get confused with in general terms.

[Russ B]

The town mentioned last night - Merthyr Tydfil - I spend a lot of time there. The people are good souls, but it's almost a culture to be on the sick. There's work if people are willing to travel but it's a tight-knit community where outsiders are viewed with suspicion and those who seek fortune outside the community are considered almost as traitors. There has been massive employment investment in the area with lots of new companies starting up - however the workers, by and large are from outside the area.

[slowcoach]

Originally Posted by WHISTLED

they also pointed out that after a peiod of blagging it becomes more difficult to get them back into work as they develop a fear f entering the work place.

I have seen people under redundancy who have worked too long for a company have exactly the same fears, of moving to a new firm, so it’s not something just related to long term unemployment.
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The National Trust is to survey all the land it owns to record what plants are growing on it, the survey will take three years.

Announced at the same time, I think it was the Wildlife Trust, are to survey the whole country to find out how many Adders there are.

Most people working on research in Universities never discover anything new during their working lifetime.

As a consolation prize for not getting the Super Casino, East Manchester will get a new £250M Opera House on the site, you have to know the area to see the joke.

So instead of the media harping on about poor sods on a pittance they should concentrate on making the Government get the lazy overeducated people into real jobs, that would prove to be a lot more beneficial to the economy in the long run.

[Chrysalis]

good old bbc, more reporting to make everyone think the benefits system is a doddle to fiddle and no mention of genuine claimants been turned down or underpaid.

---------- Post added at 17:06 ---------- Previous post was at 17:03 ----------

Originally Posted by peanutkp

I hope that is the case, but mostly people are judged by someone in a suit that don't even see the person in person. Also some of these doctors tend to have targets to meet and can deem the most sick fit enough to work. Hopefully this do change and even though the test might be more stringent, I hope it's also more fair.

The rest I do agree with though. There is a clear difference to being disabled and being sick which often people do get confused with in general terms.

Atos Origin (the company that does medicals for incapacity benefit) publicly claim they have no targets to meet but its up to yourself if you believe that I dont. I agree with you tho, the decision makers who ultimately decides on someones claim are basically clerks following a handbook and the doctors who do the medicals often have the skills of a gp at best and dont specialise in the condition of the patient.

[Osem]

It's true that a great many benefits are underclaimed out of ignorance or because applying for them is too complicated/onerous and of course because some people are simply too proud. That's the reason why Child Benefit is universal although I must admit I'd rather see it restricted to less well off families.

However poor benefit uptake isn't an argument for being soft on benefit fraud.

[RizzyKing]

You won't find a genuine benefit claimant that has a problem with hammering the fraudsters myself included and i have seen blatent cases of abusing the system. What you will see is concern that it is only the skivers and the workshy that are hit and this is rarely the case with this government. That being said the figure of a million off incapacity benefit shouldn't be that hard as i would guess it is about a million people they moved from jobseeker's to incap to massage one set of figures and will now move them back to massage another set of figures.

[Osem]

Well some say that as long as people aren't shown to be 'unemployed', HMG is quite happy for them to be drawing benefits. Would they really be that cynical?.............

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Osem

It's true that a great many benefits are underclaimed out of ignorance or because applying for them is too complicated/onerous and of course because some people are simply too proud. That's the reason why Child Benefit is universal although I must admit I'd rather see it restricted to less well off families.

However poor benefit uptake isn't an argument for being soft on benefit fraud.

How do you know they soft on it? thats my point. You read the media (usually bbc) that have cherry picked stories and assume its too soft.

[RizzyKing]

Because it is easy to assume that benefit uptake is high and abused so much like the other myth about life on benefit being a jolly old time. Legitimate benefit claimants are not having a high old life in anyway shape or form but how often is that BS trotted out usually by people that don't have to live on benefit.

[Chrysalis]

Those people taking the million off incapacity as gospel might be wise to learn it was a banker spouting the figures and he failed to back it up with any evidence.

[Angua]

One might have a bit more faith in the system if the fraudsters were the ones actually caught, but what seems to happen is the honest claimants are the easiest to trace & are made to jump through hoop after hoop to actually get anything at all.

[Russ B]

The fraudsters DO get caught. The trouble is the investigators are bogged down with their work, checking out genuine tip-offs and those which are from time wasters who want to cause a bit of hassle for someone they don't like.