By Maeve McGoldrick
Following the release of a report by the Public Accounts Committee into the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) work on benefit fraud, senior MP Edward Leigh has spoken out against the unacceptable reality that over £2 billion a year is lost due to error.
“The estimated amount of benefit lost each year to error by customers and officials has nearly doubled over five years to almost £2bn a year, this is not acceptable.”
And yet he quickly deviates to the unacceptable existence of benefit fraud;
“Benefit fraud diverts public funds into the pockets of criminals and, in so doing, reduces our confidence in the benefits system.”
Our previous blog entry on the 20th May highlighted the necessity to read between the lines when interpreting these statistics and it appears that this has been taken on board.
The Conservatives have acknowledged that the system is too complex and the Liberal Democrats Work and Pensions Spokesman, David Laws MP, saw a solution in government sharing information and simplifying benefit claimant forms like in Canada and New Zealand.
Articles in this week’s paper (The Metro) reported that the reduction in fraud from £2 billion to £800 million was due to a decision to reclassify overpayments of Disability Living Allowance as non-fraudulent. Yet the same article was given a title targeted at fraud and cheats.
The media’s approach to tackling benefit fraud and people working in the informal economy resemble government’s strategic thinking on the issue. The evidence suggests that the system is far too complex and disjointed for ground staff to make sense of it and be able to implement it effectively. Speaking in advance of the Westminster Private Members debate Kerry McCarthy MP, commented that:
‘…a top down government policy in tackling child poverty is not effective, there needs to be more of a focus on the role of local authorities’.
The CREATE Campaign, of which Links UK is a member has published a report putting forward a unique bottom-up approach which seems to be a step ahead – and in the right direction,
Yet the priority for government and the headline writers remains to pursue people abusing the system - people working out of “Need not Greed” - who are themselves struggling to make sense of the system let alone playing it.
More effective than a zero-tolerance policy would be an overhaul to create a supportive welfare system that would encourage people into formal work and harness the already existing entrepreneurial skills of disadvantaged informal workers. This would reduce benefit loss due to error, and in so doing, increase our confidence in the benefits system: a turn around for the books.
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That £800m is a huge understatement. One example. The recent National Fraud Initiative report identified probable fraud in council tax single person discount at a “cautious” £200m. That is nowhere in these figures.