Homeless Dept (Enfield) Video

princeofpounds

If the figures from DWP quoted by the website above are to be trusted, then overall benefit fraud seems to stand at less than 2

Based on rather preliminary research, I have found the following so far:

- The calculation is based on identified or strongly-suspected fraud. It does not include undetected fraud, which means it probably significantly understates the true level of fraud. (The investigations are exceptionally basic - random spot checks of claimants' addresses and a quick interview)

- The calculation does not include social housing fraud, which is one of the major categories people are concerned about.

- The rate of fraud in some specific areas is high, in terms of the % of claims made being double-digit. In others, such as pensions, it's very low. Pensions are almost half the welfare budget.

- The true overall impact is probably a multiple of the commonly-cited figure. That makes it a modest, rather than insignificant factor.

- It's actually probably quite high in terms of the welfare budget ex-pensions, which means that the popular stereotype is probably not that unfair.

- But because that part of the budget is lower than people think, the impact is not high in absolute terms. If there is a popular misconception, it's probably down to the impact of fraud rather than the prevalence of fraud.

- It is still probably substantially lower than the commonly-cited figures for tax evasion and avoidance.

- However, given tax avoidance is perfectly legal I have never really felt this was an apples-for-apples comparison. Evasion may well be similarly understated of course.