Welfare system is a shambles

A reader writes about the lack of communication between databases.

As an IT professional, he says, he knows that even 10 years ago datamining techniques allowed multiple databases to be scanned using algorithms that would easily identify multiple claims and circumstances.

When I came back to the UK, I thought that at least HMRC, the DWP and local government would share information, but this proved not to be the case. I had to act as a messenger between these organisations, who initially pretended to communicate with each other in order to frighten claimants.

He blames the Data Protection Act.

I'm more inclined to blame government inertia. It's clear millions of pounds are there to be saved if benefits databases can communicate.

At the moment the claimant has to do legwork, going from one office to another to give them the same information. Even if the databases are technically incompatible so that they cannot interact directly, the DWP's computers can still spit out a warning to the local authority when someone's benefit ceases. This is not hard!

It is also the moral thing to do. The present primitive paper-based arrangement puts temptation in people's way. How easy to delay telling the local authority that your entitlement to benefit has ceased ... just for a few weeks till you're sorted out ... then for a few months ... and then it's too late. But if computer speaks unto computer, that temptation is removed.

Data protection should not be an issue here. If you take taxpayers' money, taxpayers are entitled to expect that your financial information will be tracked as well as possible.

With some 50 benefits, the ramshackle welfare system - which accounts for a quarter of state spending - is a shambles.

No financial hit for benefit thief

Barbara Gill, from Brentford, did not tell the council that she held two bank accounts containing over £16,000. and fraudulently claimed £7,034 in housing benefits from April 2004 to July 2008.

She was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, pay costs of £852 and to repay the benefits falsely claimed back in full.

• These people do it for the money. So hit them in the pocket. It was money that motivated them, and a financial penalty will help to deter them.
  
  People convicted of benefit fraud should have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.
  
  Theresa May, please note. Taxpayers lose £2bn+ a year to benefit fraud.

Yet another meaningless sentence

Sharon Morrison from St Helens, who failed to declare that her landlord was the father of her children, has admitted falsely claiming £6,034 in benefits she was not entitled to.

She pleaded guilty and was fined £100 at with £40 costs. Morrison also has to pay back the full overpayment.

Benefit thief goes unpunished

Sophia Chahid (20), of Gunthorpe, Peterborough, appeared at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday for sentencing.

She pleaded guilty to claiming housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support on the understanding she was unemployed. However, she had actually worked for two employers during the period of her claim.

She had conned the council out of £1,913.76 housing benefit, £403.64 council tax benefit and £1,632.87 income support.

Ms Chahid received a two-year conditional discharge. She was also ordered to pay back in full the amount claimed fraudulently.

• People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.
  
  Theresa May, please note. Taxpayers lose £2bn+ a year to benefit fraud.

Subsidising Blackburn with benefits

One in five people in Blackburn with Darwen have been living off benefits for at least 13 years, reports the Lancashire Telegraph.

Some 17,986 of the 94,322 people of working age in the borough have survived on either jobseeker’s allowance or disability benefits for more than a decade.

The 19% is the 13th highest in the country, only coming behind inner city areas areas such as Tower Hamlets, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.

The figures, uncovered by the Conservative Party, show that in Blackburn with Darwen:

* 479 people aged over 16 in the borough have never worked and live on benefits.

* 363 people have lived on jobseekers allowance since 1996.

* 8,841 people have never worked "due to health problems"

* 8,303 people have not worked due to health issues since 1996 at the latest.

Currently there are 4,232 people out of work in Blackburn with Darwen, meaning the very long-term jobless total makes up around 20% of the total.

Leaders fear that while there are many genuine claimants, a lot of people are increasingly ‘playing the system’. More local reaction.

Theresa May said:

The reality is that under Labour there has been a steady growth in welfare ghettos - unemployment did not disappear during the ‘boom years’.

It is important to remember that not everyone can work, those with severe disabilities or those who do an invaluable job as full time carers or parents of young children.

But at the same time we should not shy away from demanding more of those who can work, and often desperately want to.

A ‘Lancashire’ figure was given for the county council area showing 105,000 had been out of work since at least 1996.

• Part of the problem is the level of benefits available with no time limit. As we have seen recently on television, for some people benefits are a lifestyle choice.
  
  Why should taxpayers foot that bill?

What's wrong with fraud enforcement - a case study

The judicial process for this self-confessed benefits thief has been farcical. Indeed, it's almost a case study in how the system fails taxpayers.

Back in April this man - who not only deliberately stole £20,000 from taxpayers but also boasted of it - was given merely a suspended prison sentence and a 12 month supervision order.

It's taken a further four months to get to the stage of a confiscation order. He only has to repay the amount he stole - and he gets a further 12 months to do it.

No wonder chancers decide to have a go.

The Telegraph reports that a benefits cheat, Jonathan McGrory, who conned nearly £20,000 in rent and council tax, was caught after boasting about his champagne lifestyle on the social networking website Facebook.

He told the authorities he was living on the bread line and claimed housing benefits and also had his council tax paid for him.

But after an anonymous tip-off, investigators read his profiles on Facebook and Friends Reunited, where he boasted of owning two businesses, two houses and spending thousands on plush holidays.

Coventry Crown Court made a Confiscation Order giving him 12 months to pay back the £19,679 to the city council he had claimed between August 2004 and June 2007.

At an earlier hearing in April he had been sentenced to eight weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months and given a 12 month supervision order.

• So - to repeat this blog's view - people convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.
  
  Theresa May, please note. Taxpayers lose £2bn+ a year to benefit fraud.

Incapacity benefit fraud fiction

Presumably no one believes the government's figures for incapacity benefit fraud.

Some 90% of new applicants for the successor benefit to incapacity benefit are being rejected. And 5% of British men aged under 50 are still classified as ill or disabled – three times higher than in Germany.

The government will have you believe that out of £6.7bn paid out in incapacity benefit for a year, only £10m - 0.1% - was fraudulent.

How stupid do they think we are?

Luton reports benefits prosecutions

Benefit thief Dawn Drew, from Exeter, has been convicted of a benefit fraud offence.

She appeared at Luton Magistrates Court on Monday, 10 August for failing to notify Luton Borough Council about a change in her circumstances while claiming housing and council tax benefit.

The Court heard that Drew claimed housing and council tax benefit while living in Luton, but had failed to tell the Council she had moved to Devon where she continued to receive benefits totalling £4,822.

After pleading guilty, Drew received a 12 month Community Order with 200 hours unpaid work and 12 months probation supervision. She was also ordered to pay £220 towards the Council’s costs.

The Council will be recovering the benefits overpayment through its civil recovery procedures. They shouldn't have to invoke separate proceedings. It slows recovery and costs us more money. She's guilty of fraud.

Luton resident Helen Smith has been convicted of 5 counts of furnishing false and misleading information to Luton Borough Council while claiming housing and council tax benefit.

She pleaded guilty to the offences at Luton Magistrates Court on Wednesday, 12 August. The Court heard that Smith claimed benefits but did not mention her bank accounts containing substantial savings.

During an interview under caution at the Town Hall, Smith lied about her financial circumstances and two days after the meeting, Council investigators discovered she had withdrawn the funds from her accounts. Smith subsequently wrote to the Council to confess she had lied about her circumstances.

Smith dishonestly obtained benefits totalling £4,337 but has since repaid this in full to the Council. She was fined £50 and ordered to pay £135 towards the Council’s costs.

• People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

Jail for £36k benefit fraud

A Newcastle warehouseman who claimed £35,940 in benefits while he had three different jobs has been jailed for a year.

James Hilton began claiming incapacity benefits for stress and depression in September 2000. But from 2002 he took various jobs, without telling the DWP. He claimed £21,500 in incapacity benefits, £11,780, in housing benefits and £2,660 in council tax between 2002 and 2007.

More

We subsidise this man with incapacity benefit

Police breaking up an illegal rave in an isolated wood arrested a man carrying a weapon made from a piece of glass, a court heard.

Daniel Jaggard admitted possessing an offensive weapon and ketamine, a Class C drug, when he appeared at Bury St Edmunds Magistrates’ Court.

Paul Bootly, for Jaggard, said his client, who has previous convictions for possessing offensive weapons, was receiving incapacity benefit and had problems with alcohol and drugs and had not intended to use the weapon.

More

There's been no suggestion of benefit fraud here - but is he a suitable case for subsidy?

Systems analyst was benefits thief for many years

Janette Woodhouse has been warned she could face jail after admitting cheating the taxpayer out of £41,000 in benefits.

The systems analyst, from Gloucester, kept claiming income support and council tax relief even though she had a succession of jobs earning good salaries, city magistrates heard.

She admitted 11 charges involving the overpayment of housing benefit and council tax of £27,154 and income support of £14,000.

She got the benefits by declaring she was an unemployed single parent with children to care for. The case involved a long history of claiming benefits from Gloucester City Council and the DWP, dating back to 1995.

She will be sentenced at Gloucester Magistrates' Court on September 18.

Manchester benefit thieves get off lightly

Caretaker Andrew Wood and his partner, Michelle Brown, fraudulently claimed more than £50,000 in income support, council tax and housing benefit on the home they shared in Sale.

Trafford council officers discovered the fraud after an anonymous tip-off alleged Wood had been boasting to co-workers about the scam.

Both escaped jail, with six-month prison sentences suspended for two years. They were each ordered to carry out 180 hours' unpaid work.

Wood, a facilities assistant for Trafford council, was suspended from his job on full pay when the allegation was made. A decision about his future with the council will be made at a disciplinary hearing next week.

Ms Brown said after the hearing: "What we did was wrong and we admit that. People have every right to be angry with us, but at that time, I felt that we had no other choice. I did it for my kids.

"I'm glad it's over now and we will pay our debt to society."

The court heard Brown had made an honest claim for benefits in 2001, but failed to declare that Wood had moved in to her home on Hurst Avenue, Sale, in 2002. They continued to claim income support, council tax and housing benefit totalling £52,799, until March 2008, when their scam came to light.

Rob Lancaster, defending Brown, said the couple could legitimately have claimed about £34,000 benefits in the six-year period - a difference of £18,000.

The judge spared Brown from jail as she is now a single mother with two young children.

Wood was described by his barrister Andrew Ford as a `man of low intelligence', with mental health issues and poor literacy and numeracy skills (but good enough to milk taxpayers of £18,000). The judge said he was showing leniency towards Wood because of this and because he looked set to lose his job.

Romanians commit organised benefit fraud

The Sunday Times has reports of our benefits system being plundered by Romanian organised crime.

Foreign criminals are trafficking children as young as three months old into Britain and using them to defraud the benefits system of millions of pounds, writes Jon Ungoed-Thomas (more here). The children are trained in street crime and placed with unrelated adults to enable fake benefit claims to be paid into accounts controlled by the trafficker.

In a police operation earlier this month in northeast London, four suspected child victims of trafficking from Romania were placed in foster care. Officers found evidence of suspected benefit crime in excess of £100,000, including one backdated payment to a family for £24,000. In another case using trafficked children, one gang is believed to have forged documents for at least 500 claims worth £4.5m.

It is the first detailed evidence of systematic child trafficking being used to defraud the British benefits system. The money is believed to have paid for the foreign criminals’ mansions and luxury cars in their home towns. Tandarei, a small town in eastern Romania, is one of the bases of the suspected traffickers. About 100 imposing new homes conservatively valued at £20m have been built over the past five years. British police believe they have been partly funded by benefit fraud.

Operation Golf, the Metropolitan police operation targeting the Romanian gang funded with a £1m EU grant, has found evidence of a trafficking ring linked to Tandarei, a town of 15,000 people in eastern Romania which includes a 2,000-strong Roma gypsy population. The minor economic boom has seen 100 imposing new homes built, valued at about £20m. BMWs and Land Rovers with British numberplates cruise the dusty streets.

Unemployed Romanians arriving in the UK are not typically entitled to benefits, but the gangs forge documents providing false work histories and obtain National Insurance numbers. The children are used to claim additional housing benefit, tax credits and child benefit. They can also be presented to council officials or benefit investigators conducting checks.

The claims supplement revenue from other criminal activities such as cashpoint fraud, pickpocketing and shoplifting.

Two months ago, a group of 10 bedraggled and bewildered-looking Romanians arrived at immigration control at Stansted airport in Essex on a flight from Bucharest.

They had no luggage, spoke no English and had no apparent means of support. One of the group was an alcoholic and another a drug addict.

According to police intelligence, they were benefit “mules”, sent to the UK with the task of claiming benefits for an organised crime gang. Already prepared for the group were forged documents, false work histories and tailor-made families with young children for fraudulent benefit claims.

“The information we had was that once they had served their purpose they were going to be returned home,” said one police officer. “They were abjectly poor Romanians and had no means of support.”

This time, he reports, the group was turned back at the airport after immigration officials contacted antitrafficking police. However, new evidence shows the plundering of Britain’s benefit system by organised crime is a booming trade - and trafficked people, particularly children, are at the heart of it.

Tens of millions of pounds are lost to organised crime in benefit fraud each year, and there is mounting concern about the high proportion of fraudulent claims orchestrated by traffickers which are being rubber-stamped after only the most basic checks.

Under rules imposed when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in January 2007, new arrivals to Britain from those countries are typically unable to claim benefits for themselves or their children. Claims can, however, be made by the self-employed who have National Insurance numbers and by those who have worked in the country for 12 months.

The Romanian gangs use a variety of documents to prove adults are eligible for benefits – and then use the trafficked children in this country to boost the claims.

One of the methods is to create companies which are used to certify that an individual is providing services on a self-employed basis. This testimony is used to obtain a National Insurance number, which then provides access to the benefits system.

Another method is to falsify immigration papers indicating that the claimant has been in the country for at least five years and has leave to remain, again getting access to the benefits system.

In theory, child benefit and tax credits for children can be claimed even if the children are not in the country. However, the presence of the trafficked child means extra housing benefit and additional tax credits, and helps if any spot checks are conducted by council officials or benefit investigators.

Many of the families who have had their claims rubber-stamped by the DWP and HMRC have never worked in this country and are not entitled to benefits, says The Sunday Times. Rudimentary checks on documents are partly blamed for the problem, along with the chaos that has bedevilled the tax credit system since its inception.

The activities of the gang first came under the spotlight in 2007. The Metropolitan police began an investigation because of concern about the increase in crime involving Romanians after the country’s accession to the EU – more than 1,000 offences were recorded in the first six months of 2007, compared with 168 in the whole of 2006. In January 2008, police made well-publicised raids on 16 addresses used by the traffickers, discovering homes crammed with young children who had been trained in street crime.

Four people were subsequently jailed at Reading crown court for child trafficking in the first conviction under the Immigration Act 2004. Most of the suspected traffickers, however, were left untouched because of the difficulty of pursuing prosecutions for trafficking. Often the parents are complicit and children are unwilling to give evidence.

One arm of the gang is under investigation for providing forged documents linked to DWP claims worth £4.5m. DWP officials are understood to have identified about 500 suspect claims linked to the gang.

In an operation in northeast London on August 11 involving Romanian officers and lawyers, police visited 24 addresses and identified 20 children believed to have been trafficked. They found individual backdated payments for benefits ranging from £14,000 to £24,000, with suspected fraudulent claims totalling £100,000.

Anthony Steen MP, chairman of the UK all-party parliamentary group on trafficking of women and children, who accompanied the police on the operation in Ilford, said:

Our benefits and legal system are not geared for this type of organised crime. The benefits system is being siphoned off by the traffickers using children who are appallingly exploited.

Detective Inspector Gordon Valentine, head of Operation Paladin, the Metropolitan police’s specialist anti-child-trafficking team, said that while the Romanian gang was highly organised, there was evidence of traffickers from several other countries targeting the benefits system.

HMRC and DWP now face questions about the effectiveness of their checks against organised crime and whether they have adequately assessed the potential threat, says the paper.

The DWP said it had amended its system of allocating National Insurance numbers to “provide further safeguards”.

HMRC said in a statement that it “takes fraud extremely seriously and has a range of checks in place throughout the period of the claim, including checking the authenticity of documents”.

As readers of this blog know, the scale of the problem overwhelms them.

Light sentence for pension cheat caught by data matching

A Workington man scammed £13,936 in benefits by not telling authorities about his pension.

John Halbert overclaimed housing and council tax benefits from 2004 by not declaring a pension he had been receiving since 1989 as a result of an accident at work.

He was given a community order for one year and told to attend an alcohol awareness programme.

Magistrates heard that Halbert had stated on a benefit application form in March 2004 that his only income was from incapacity benefit and as a result of this information, Halbert was awarded housing and council tax benefits. Review forms received in September 2006 and March 2008 again stated that Halbert’s only source of income was incapacity benefit.

But the council learned in March 2009, from the National Fraud Initiative, that he might be receiving an occupational pension and investigated.

They discovered that Halbert had been receiving an occupational pension since May 1989 and that this payment was continuing. This income and the bank account which it had been paid into had not been declared by Halbert.

Allerdale Council, which prosecuted the case, has made arrangements to recover the money. Halbert was also ordered to pay £75 costs.

Benefit fraud by criminal family

The parents of a gangster have been spared jail after they admitted falsely claiming £18,000 in benefits.

Peter Anderson was given an indeterminate jail sentence for a £136,000 armed robbery in 2006. While living the high life, he claimed £14,000 incapacity benefit after falsely claiming he could not work because of anxiety and depression.

Now his father, also called Peter Anderson, 56, and his mother Geraldine Riley, 52, have been in court for benefit fraud.

Salford magistrates were told the couple failed to tell the authorities that Riley was working at a care home. As a result, they continued to be paid council tax and housing benefit between 2001 and 2008. Her wages were paid into her son's bank account.

The couple also failed to reveal that another son Paul, their daughter Claire and her seven-year-old son were living at the house. Claire was working at an amusement arcade and bringing money into the house.

Paul Scott, prosecuting, said the couple had pleaded guilty to a number of offences relating to the benefit claims including failing to declare a change of circumstances when Riley started working.

Anderson, who is ill and cannot work after falling down stairs, was given a six-month curfew and a nine-month community order.

The defence plea in mitigation is here.

Danielle Bardsley, girlfriend of their son Peter Anderson, had been given a 10-month suspended jail sentence and a two-year supervision order after admitting money laundering and benefit fraud. The 29-year-old, who lived a luxury lifestyle as a result of her boyfriend's ill-gotten gains, was also ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work.

Bardsley's mum, Karen Bardsley, 47, of Barrow Street, Salford, siphoned £10,000 of Anderson's criminal earnings through her bank account. She received a suspended four-month jail sentence and was ordered to carry out 120 hours unpaid work.

Data matching catches benefit thief

Helen Ismay, from Maryport, failed to declare an Army pension over a total of eight years while claiming for benefits. The pension was paid into a separate bank account, which she kept secret from Allerdale council.

Ismay had stated on a benefit application form in 2001 that her only income was long-term incapacity benefit and disability living allowance. As a result, she was awarded housing and council tax benefits.

In benefit reviews – completed in November 2006, February 2008 and January 2009 – Ismay stated that her only income was incapacity benefit, child benefit and child tax credits.

Information received in March 2009 by Allerdale council from the National Fraud Initiative indicated Ismay might be receiving an Army pension.

She had been getting the pension since November 2000. This income and the bank account which it had been paid into had not been declared.

At court, Ismay pleaded guilty to failing to inform the council of her true income, which resulted in an overpayment of housing and council tax benefits of £8,821.

She was given a community order for 12 months and ordered to pay costs of £75.

Zimbabwean nurse steals £44k benefits

A nurse who worked at Worthing hospital has been jailed for one year for illegally claiming almost £45,000 in benefits.

Mother-of-two Dana Afrokomah Owusu, 28, from Goring, worked as a staff nurse at the hospital from May, 2005, until December, 2008, while claiming she was unemployed.

Owusu, also known as Banyard, admitted five offences of benefit fraud. She was overpaid £23,268 of income support, £18,551 of housing benefit and council tax benefit of £2,916; a grand total of £44,736.

The deception came to light when Owusu - who is originally from Zimbabwe - changed her name three or four times by deed poll, alerting the suspicions of Worthing Hospital counter-fraud officers concerned about her legal identity.

• Do we get our money back?
  

Benefit fraud chemist jailed

A pharmacist claimed more than £40,000 in state benefits despite owning a house outright, driving a Mercedes convertible and having £96,000 spread over five bank accounts.

Nusrat Jabin lied on forms to claim £38,129 in income support and £4,570 of council tax benefit, even though she was also earning as much as £1,500 a week.

The 38-year-old claimed the cash, failing to declare details of her personal wealth, over a period of almost six years.

Recorder Edward Coke, sentencing Jabin to six months in prison, said the mother-of-two had "fleeced the system" out of sheer greed.

He said: "You can hardly be described as being on the poverty line. Income support is there to be a safety net for those who cannot work, those who cannot obtain work or those who do not have the qualifications for work – which you do have.

"You reduced the pool of money available for people who deserve it and who need it."

Recorder Coke said that, by sending Jabin to jail, he was sending out a message that benefit fraud would not be taken lightly, especially when committed by the wealthy.

Jabin has repaid the council tax benefit. The DWP will be making a claim to reclaim the income support money.

More

• People convicted of benefit fraud should have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  Then greedy people will be less likely to take the risk.
  

Bristol man blames red tape for wife's visa refusal

Tony Glover, 49, a former lorry driver, met his 23-year-old Filipina wife, a qualified nurse, over the internet and wants her to be allowed to move to this country to look after him. The government has refused her a visa but he says this is his right. You can read about the immigration issues here.

He says he can support her through his benefit:

For the last six years I have had acute angina and have been in and out of hospital for four operations.

The embassy says I have to have a full-time job to support her, but they have already had a letter from me explaining why I can't work, and my GP is also writing to them outlining my health problems.

Some days I am so bad I can't even walk to the top of the stairs.

Who is going to employ someone like that?

To me it is discrimination. I can't help being ill and it is not my fault I have heart disease.

And yet ....

• After the couple met online in 2006 (she would be 20 then, he 46?), Mr Glover went to visit her in March 2007.
  
  
• After two more lengthy visits the couple were married in the Philippines in June 2008.
  
  
• There followed a further two-month visit earlier this year.

All those costly long trips to the Philippines - which must be risky with acute angina - and yet he's too ill to work here?

No one has alleged fraud.

No jail for £16k benefit fraud

A woman who falsely claimed more than £16,000 in benefits has been given a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty.

Fiona Bradshaw pocketed income support as a single parent for herself and three dependant children, Bolton Crown Court heard.

The 41-year-old used her mother’s address in Radcliffe to claim for the benefits. But officers from the DWP launched an investigation after being informed that Bradshaw was living with her partner in Bury.

When interviewed she admitted that she had moved to her partner’s house 10 years ago.

Bradshaw was previously of good character and one of her children is autistic, the court was told.

Judge Lynsey Kushner gave Bradshaw a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Bradshaw must also do 120 hours of unpaid work in the community.

htp Damien

• People convicted of benefit fraud should have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

We're closing in on benefit fraud?

The latest figures show there were 5.80m working age benefit claimants at February 2009. (The total population of the UK is around 60m.)

The number of working age claimants of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and incapacity benefits totalled 2.60m. 736,000 people were claiming lone parent benefit.

In the year to February there were 422,000 new claims to working age incapacity benefits, and 549,000 new claims for Income Support.

These huge numbers cannot be policed effectively for fraudulent claims. They only emphasise the case for deterrent punishments for those few who do get caught.

Somalian fraudster jailed for benefit fraud

An asylum seeker from Somalia has been sentenced to 13 months' imprisonment for using a false identity to claim over £6,400 worth of asylum support, social security and housing benefit.

Mohamud Dhicisow Hared, aged 43, of Trinity Road, Aston, Birmingham, illegally entered the United Kingdom in January 2008 under the false identity of Mohamoud Mohammed Maalim and claimed asylum.

Whilst his claim was being considered, he received asylum seekers support totalling £390.43.

Between March 2008 and March 2009 Hared, still masquerading as Maalim, fraudulently claimed Jobseekers Allowance totalling £3,146.

In May 2008 Hared moved to a flat in Trinity Road, Aston and claimed Housing Benefit in his false Maalim identity. He received approximately £2,900 of Housing Benefit.

However, Hared's lucrative scam was uncovered when, acting on intelligence, a specialist UK Border Agency foreign national crime team discovered his real identity and arrested him on 1 April 2009.

Sentencing Hared on Tuesday 4 August at Warwick Crown Court to 13 months imprisonment for five offences, the judge also recommended that he be deported when he completes his sentence.

Gail Adams, UK Border Agency regional director, said:

We will not tolerate immigration abuse and will punish those who break the immigration laws. This case shows how effective identity cards will be in preventing immigration abuse. Individuals will be locked down to one identity through their facial image and fingerprints.

Identity cards for foreign nationals will help us stop people illegally accessing benefits, and make it easier than ever to crack down on illegal working.

Foreign nationals wanting to stay in the United Kingdom will have their facial images and fingerprints recorded at new biometric enrolment centres before being issued with identity cards.

The Birmingham centre, which opened last week, is one of ten enrolment centres for foreign nationals with others already opened in Belfast, Brighton, Croydon, Cardiff, Derby, Glasgow, London, Sheffield and Liverpool.

Benefit cheat flew mum from Bangladesh

A man who flew his mother back from Bangladesh to convince inspectors she was living in his home so that he could claim over £92,000 in benefits has been jailed.

Mohammed Rashid was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty at Swansea Crown Court.

He admitted five charges of false accounting, obtaining transfers of money by deception and procuring the execution of valuable securities, and asked for more than 850 other offences of a similar kind to be taken into consideration.

Between 2001 and 2007, he fraudulently obtained some £92,787 as a result of claims for carer's allowance, income support, pension credit, housing benefit and disability living allowance.

The claims related to his mother, Tasbir Begum Latif, who for a time had lived with him. But in 2001, Mrs Latif went home to Bangladesh and over the next six years — until her death in 2007 — she spent most of her time there.

In 1995 he became an "appointee" on behalf of Mrs Latif, who was registered blind, and in this capacity he dealt with all aspects of her various claims for benefits. The benefits were either collected by Rashid himself or paid directly into bank accounts held by him, but he failed to tell the DWP that his mother was living thousands of miles away.

Investigators received an anonymous allegation from a member of the public suggesting that Mr Rashid was claiming money for his elderly mother when she was not resident in the UK, and was in fact living in Bangladesh.

In March 2007, when a council visiting officer arranged an appointment to call at Gwydr Crescent to carry out a review of Mrs Latif's housing benefit claim, Rashid even went to Bangladesh to fetch his mother so the false claim could be continued.

Detectives and DWP officials who seized passports from Rashid's Uplands home discovered that Mrs Latif had spent 55 months in Bangladesh between 2001 and 2007.

The judge said a prison term was unavoidable:

Offences of this kind are easy to commit but difficult to detect, and a measure of deterrence of others is required.

When offenders are detected, it is important that the public see that this level of fraud is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be passed.

The prosecution is expected to pursue financial orders against Rashid at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing later this year.

But they shouldn't have to. These orders should be automatically given on the spot when someone is guilty of benefit fraud.

Housing benefit fraudster sentenced

A housing benefit fraudster who cheated the tax payer out of more than £55,000 was sentenced at the Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday 6 August 2009.

Mr Alexander Oborin, of Finchley Road, NW3, had claimed housing benefit for 6 years on the basis of low paid earnings of about £350 a month.

Routine checks carried out by Camden Council’s housing benefit investigation team revealed that the employer Mr Oborin declared on his housing benefit claim had no trace of him working there.

Further checks also revealed that he had two self employed jobs, as an actor and a call centre operator, earning a considerable amount more than he had declared. The investigation also revealed that he had bank accounts which he failed to declare.

He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and "asked" to repay Camden Council the £55,524 in housing benefit.

Minimal sentence for £38k benefit thief

Here's another case of a benefit thief who has got away almost unpunished just because she has children. The paper headline their report "East Cleveland benefit cheat is spared jail". She's really been spared punishment.

A mother who fraudulently claimed almost £38,000 in benefits to “make ends meet” over a four-year period has been spared prison.

Jodie Moore, from East Cleveland, started claiming income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit legitimately in 2001.

But it became benefit fraud in mid-2004 when she began living with boyfriend Jason Ward without telling the authorities.

“She continued to claim benefits as a single person for just under four years,” said Lee Fish, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

“She has received a total overpayment of benefit in the sum of £37,775.09.”

When caught early last year, the 26-year-old mother initially lied and denied living with her partner to police but later made a full confession.

Andrew Foster, defending, said: “The overpayment went to provide for her children and for her to tackle mounting debts.

“The offence was not motivated by any sense of greed or any desire to live beyond her means.”

He said she was now paying back the government in small instalments.

He added: “She is no longer in contact with Jason Lee Ward and has obtained a non-molestation order against him.

“An immediate custodial sentence would unfortunately result in her children spending time in foster care. There are no other people to look after them.”

The judge, Recorder Darren Preston, passed a 48-week prison sentence suspended for two years with supervision to enable her to get help from the Probation Service.

• So where's the deterrent?
  
  People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

Light sentence for disabled benefit cheat

The chairman of Allenton Royal British Legion has been sentenced for dishonestly claiming £19,000 in disability benefit.

John Corpe was being paid by friends and neighbours for doing "odd jobs" while he claimed benefit for not being able to work because he suffered from emphysema.

The 64-year-old, who is known as Barry, also received £200 twice a year from the Allenton Royal British Legion club.

Corpe, of Walton Avenue, Allenton, was given a six-month sentence suspended for two years, with a three-month curfew from 7pm until 7am daily.

John Snell, prosecuting, told Derby Crown Court how Corpe had received £80 for installing a shower for one neighbour and £60 for installing light fittings for another woman.

"The defendant said that at some points he was working 20 to 25 hours a week and knew he should have reported the work and conceded he had been dishonest," said Mr Snell.

The court heard how Corpe, who did not have a criminal record, had been "candid" with the DWP.

Mr Snell said the department had put Corpe under surveillance for three months after they received an tip-off from an anonymous caller that he was working.

But when Corpe was interviewed in January 2008, he told the investigators he had been working for five years, while claiming the benefits.

Mr Snell said that Corpe had legitimately started claiming the benefit in 1989 but had failed to tell the department when he started working.

Corpe admitted dishonestly failing to notify the DWP about a change in personal circumstances.

Clive Stockwell, in mitigation, said: "His candour extended the period of his criminal involvement and made it clear that the department were dealing with an offence for longer than it had evidence to prove."

• People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

TV composer was benefits thief

A composer and college lecturer who lied about having any savings has found himself more than £3,200 out of pocket after a successful prosecution by the London Borough of Hounslow's benefit fraud team.

Composer and college lecturer Marco Mastrocola, from Feltham, pleaded guilty to an offence of benefit fraud at Brentford Magistrates court.

The council received information indicating that Mr Mastrocola had falsely claimed that he had no savings. He had been declaring his earnings as a college lecturer to the council but failed to disclose that he was also a music composer for TV and films and received royalty proceeds from this. If he had declared his circumstances correctly, he would not have been entitled to receive council tax benefit.

He falsely claimed £2,065 in council tax benefits, from May 11 2006 to December 21 2008. He has since paid this back in full.

Mr Mastrocola was fined £400 and in addition ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge together with costs in the sum of £729 (total £1,144).

The council’s lead member for finance, Councillor Gerald McGregor, lied:

We are getting really tired of seeing money that is supposed to help people in genuine need being taken by undeserving criminals. In this case the culprit took money from every council taxpayer in Hounslow.

At this time of economic necessity, there are so many people out there who really need help with benefit provision, and the money Mr Mastrocola used for lining his own pockets with effectively prevents other people benefiting. Untrue.

To those who think they can get away with committing this type of crime, the message is very simple - you will be caught (unlikely) and you will have to repay the money you stole.

Wow, what sort of punishment is that?

• People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

Slap on the wrist for benefit fraud is no deterrent

Benefit cheat Dennis Jasper, from Manningford Bruce, near Pewsey, who took eight months to tell the council he had a job, has been ordered to pay back £991 of housing aid.

He had failed to meet officers at his home as required and did not declare he had started work. Magistrates heard, however, that he did inform the council he had started full time work.

But he failed to provide the wage slips to support his circumstances.

A check with his employers revealed that he had started the job eight months earlier than stated.

Jasper was given a two-year conditional discharge.

• So no actual penalty then. Just give us the money back when you can, and don't do it again.
  
  People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

Jail for £46k benefit fraudster

A cheating pensioner who conned his way to £46,000 in benefits has been jailed.

Gloucester Crown Court heard Ronald Taylor may have had a savings stash of more than £80,000 – some of it in trust funds for his son and daughter – which he should have declared.

Jailing him for 12 months, Judge Martin Picton told him: "You had a large amount of cash available but you chose to fiddle your benefits to protect this nest egg. This was £46,000 in benefits you shouldn't have had."

The judge had been told Taylor criminally ticked boxes on claim forms answering 'no' to questions about whether had savings on not.

The retired building worker admitted four charges – two relating to deception on a pension credit form and two to housing benefit forms.

Prosecutor Kirsty Real said police searched Taylor's address in May last year and found cash amounting to more than £8,000, along with bank account details suggesting he had a total of £84,000 – some of it in trust for his son and daughter.

Ms Real told the court that since the deception was uncovered Taylor's benefits had been cancelled. She said the Crown would be seeking £46,000 from him at a future confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

• This should be a standard part of the fraud proceedings. The need for a separate application causes more work and slows up recovery.
  

Easy pickings

A Stanwell woman who falsely claimed more than £26,000 in benefits after failing to inform the authorities that her husband had moved back in with her has been handed a suspended jail term.

Patricia Daines had previously admitted six offences of benefit fraud and was given a three-month prison term suspended for two years.

The court heard that Mrs Daines made a claim for income support after her husband moved out of her house, but failed to notify the DWP and Spelthorne Borough Council when he returned.

The defendant claimed a total of £26,441 in income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit between January 2006 and June 2008.

Councillor Richard Smith-Ainsley, said:

It is the responsibility of people claiming housing benefit and council tax benefit to promptly notify the council of any changes in their circumstances.

This includes people living with them. If they are getting benefits from the DWP they need to inform them separately.

Along with her suspended jail term, Mrs Daines was ordered to carry out 280 hours of unpaid work over the next 12 months and pay £388.50 in prosecution costs to the council.

She will also have to repay all benefits that were falsely claimed.

• It's ludicrous that claimants still have to inform two agencies separately.
  

Pathetic sentence from Judge Sullivan

This woman deliberately stole over £40,000 of our money. Yet Judge Sullivan spared her jail, presumably because she has children, as no other extenuating circumstances emerge from the report. Mothers of England, roll up with your fraudulent claims! You have nothing to fear from Judge Sullivan.

Titilayo Ajana, a single mother from Harlesden, pleaded guilty to four charges of benefit fraud after investigators discovered she failed to inform the council when her circumstances changed and continued to receive housing and council tax benefit totalling £41,117.

Pleading guilty to four charges of benefit fraud, she was given an eight month sentence suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 100 hours of community service.

She was given temporary accommodation at a property in Baker Road, Harlesden, after she made a homeless application as a single mother to Brent Council in 2001.

She continued to receive benefits despite the fact she married in August 2002 and bought a property in Borehamwood in November 2002. She failed to inform the council of her change of circumstances.

Ajana then proceeded to rent the property in Harlesden.

Investigators then discovered Ajana had been claiming benefits from the DWP since June 2002 on the basis that she was a single mother and that her only income was Jobseekers Allowance and Child Benefits.

When she was interviewed about these matters in June 2007 Ajana admitted failing to notify the authority promptly of changes in her circumstances.

Investigations also revealed she had been working as an Independent Mortgage Broker. Further enquiries made with her bankers showed that during April 2004 to July 2004 she received at least £4,685.88 in commission.

In addition her bank statements revealed she had received substantial deposits into her account since 2002. These payments were suspected to be attributable to undeclared rental income in respect of Baker Road and the property in Borehamwood.

• Judge Sullivan seems to be too stupid to understand that the punishment must deter or these crimes will continue. This 'punishment' is no deterrent.
  
  Benefit thieves should have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

Benefits at county level?

Douglas Carswell reports a suggestion by Essex County Council that they might take over some aspects of running the benefits system.

Very nice at the headline level. But lamentably, there are over 50 benefits interlocking with each other and not always in a logical way, as the recent CPS paper pointed out. Are we to have separate bureaucracies and instructions for each local authority?

If rates differed from county to county, we might see benefits tourism. And data matching across all the counties' databases would be essential, to avoid multiple claiming.

So while I understand the thrust behind the proposal, I do wonder what results a cost/benefit analysis would throw up. Worth doing - the exercise would be an essential part of any proposal.

That said, radical action is clearly urgently needed on the structure and costs of the benefits system. But I don't see any party saying it relishes grasping this nettle.

Douglas Carswell mentions benefit fraud in passing. The government pretends it's £800-900m a year - bad enough. It's actually around £2bn.

Councils and the DWP do not have the resources to stem the huge flood of cases, as the Public Accounts Committee pointed out. So penalties must be strengthened to act as a real deterrent to would be offenders.

But the courts are often very forgiving of benefit theft as if they consider it in some way not a real crime, or the perpetrators not real criminals deserving of punishment.

Here the localist proposals in The Plan might certainly be useful. If local communities felt that local benefit thieves (often, incidentally, reported by their own communities in the first place) weren't being suitably sentenced, they could make this clear to the sheriff, who might then call on the local judiciary to toughen up.

This could entail overturning the national sentencing guidelines ... cue yet another sharp intake of breath from Whitehall, and this time from senior judges too.

DWP gets benefit fraud sums wrong

Carl Staten, from Cottingley, had admitted a £27,000 benefit fraud – but the figure calculated by the DWP was wrong. He had in fact been paid £6,597 in benefits he wasn't entitled to.

Staten had failed to notify the DWP that his partner Victoria Whittaker worked as a cleaner for more than 16 hours a week when he filled in claim forms between July 2004 and October 2006.

He arrived at court expecting to be sentenced for the £27,000 fraud before the miscalculation was discovered yesterday. Sentencing Staten to a 12 month community order with supervision, Judge Christopher Batty told him: "I'm not very happy about the way your case has been dealt with, I suspect that's an understatement as far as you are concerned.

"Let's not get away from the fact that you lied in order to obtain benefits. Normally people who lie to gain benefits go to custody.

(What a lie!)

"Your case is now very different to the one I thought it was, and indeed to the one you have been living with for many months."

Prosecutor, Laura Addy said: "During discussions, myself and my learned friend (Staten's lawyer Timothy Jacobs) both noted calculations had been done on the wrong basis. I cannot explain why (the DWP) made these errors. There are a number of checks that should have happened, all I can do is apologise."

The court heard Miss Whittaker started working as a cleaner for around 10 hours a week in July 2003.

But from July 2004 to October 2006 her hours and pay increased as she was working around 20 hours a week most weeks.

Benefit thief sentenced

A gymnastics coach who falsely claimed benefits totalling more than £17,000 was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, at Norwich Crown Court yesterday.

Anthony Hockley (65), from North Wootton, failed to tell the DWP that he was working as a gymnastics coach at a primary school in Boston, Lincolnshire, and that his wife was working as a shop assistant in Lynn.

Hockley falsely received payments of £14,244 in pension credits and £3,289 in council tax benefits.

He admitted five offences of dishonestly obtaining pension credits and council tax benefits between February, 2005, and March, 2008.

He has made some of the repayments as well as putting his house up for sale because he was planning to repay the money.

Judge Philip Curl told Hockley that the total amount of benefits was "a substantial sum of money" however he did accept that the gymnastics coach was a man of previous good character.

Katharine Moore, for Hockley, said: "He is deeply ashamed of his behaviour. His wife suffered a breakdown nine years ago and had to take time off work which had affected the family finances. The claim started out as an honest one."

As well as a suspended prison sentence Hockley was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

Cancer lie by benefit thief

Jennifer Fowles, from Thornaby, is waiting to learn her fate after admitting three counts of benefit fraud totalling about £32,000. She had similar previous convictions from 1997, though she cannot remember them. Apparently.

And now she may have landed herself in more trouble after misinforming the Probation Service that she has bone cancer.

Her lawyer told Teesside Crown Court: "This lady was not suffering from bone cancer.

"She has not undergone radiotherapy, she is not undergoing chemotherapy. That became apparent when her solicitor took her to James Cook University Hospital to clarify certain points. They had no knowledge of her.

"There is potential for another charge at least for perverting the course of justice because she maintained that fiction.

"It is an unusual matter, to put it very bluntly."

The judge adjourned Fowles' sentencing for reports including a psychiatric assessment, and bailed her for six weeks. He said: "If in fact it turns out that the psychiatrist says you're simply trying to pull the wool over people's eyes, it simply will not improve matters for you."

Light benefit fraud sentences at Lichfield

Two people have been prosecuted for committing fraud after investigations by Lichfield District Council’s Benefit Investigations Team.

In the first case Karen Godderidge, pleaded guilty to ‘making a false declaration’ in her claim for housing and council tax benefit.

On July 29, Tamworth Magistrates’ Court heard how Mrs Godderidge failed to declare that she received a student bursary. Had this been declared, she would not have been entitled to either housing or council tax benefit. As a result, she received £1,462 in benefits, which she now has to pay back to the council.

The court fined Mrs Godderidge £130, and ordered her to pay costs of £400 and a £15 victim surcharge.

In the second case, heard at Tamworth Magistrates’ Court on August 6, Brian Rogers pleaded guilty to two charges of ‘dishonestly making a false declaration’ when claiming housing and council tax benefit.

The court heard how he had failed to declare that he received a civil service pension. As a result, he received £3,755 in housing and council tax benefit that he was not entitled to. He will now have to repay the full amount to the council.

The court gave Mr Rogers a 12 month community/supervision order, a three month curfew (between 7pm and 7am), and ordered him to pay costs of £200.

No jail for £38k benefit thief

A woman who dishonestly claimed almost £38,000 in benefit over several years has escaped a jail sentence because she has children.

Weeping Kelly Lawrence was told by a judge: "It was a very close call...because I don't want to give the wrong message to others who think if they cheat the social they are not going to get that punishment."

That's exactly the message Judge Andrew Goymer gave.

But he added he had to ask himself if it was in the public interest to send the 31-year-old mother-of-three into custody. He said, "If I send you to prison it will have a devastating effect on your children's lives."

Lawrence, from Kemsley, near Sittingbourne was sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment suspended for a year and ordered to do 220 hours of unpaid work.

She admitted making a false representation between June 2001 and January 2004 and two deception charges. Maidstone Crown Court heard Lawrence claimed housing and council tax benefit and income support without declaring she was living with her husband Jason Braine.

htp Dave

Defiant granny escapes real punishment

A grandmother has been electronically tagged after she was caught falsely claiming £14,000 worth of benefits.

Norma Allum, 68, from Great Harwood, forged her husband’s signature in order to receive the cash. She has been electronically tagged on her right ankle after being given a five month curfew between 8pm and 7am. She will also have to pay back all the overpaid benefit.

Allum hit out at the way she had been treated, saying it made her “feel like a criminal”.

She said: “I’m not allowed to go out after 8 o’clock and I’ve got to clock in on a device in my kitchen. I’ve got this on my ankle and a machine in my kitchen like I’m a criminal when I’m not. They’re taking the money out of my pension credit and something like £15-a-month. I’ve never done anything wrong in my life. I’ve always paid my bills.”

Hyndburn Council officers investigating the case found that Allum’s husband, Bill, had a bank account where a £430 per month pension was being deposited. This was not disclosed on the application forms for benefits which appeared to have been signed by both him and his wife.

Allum later admitted to forging her husband’s signature when she was interviewed under caution. She said that she was divorcing her husband, Bill, but he had been “back and forth” at her flat.

Allum said: “His name is still on the tenancy, so I filled both of our names out on the form. I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to do it. I didn’t think it mattered. It’s an injustice what has happened to me. I’m an old lady and I should be compensated for what I’ve been put through. I’ve been made an example of and I’m not guilty.”

Benefit cheat must pay back £200k or go to jail

A benefit cheat caught living in luxury has been ordered to pay back almost £200,000 or face returning to prison.

Christopher Barcroft, from Stalybridge, was jailed for three months in July last year after pleading guilty to fraudulently claiming around £32,000 in housing and council tax benefit.

But further investigation by Tameside Council revealed the 46-year-old had in fact got more than £750,000 in the bank and in assets.

He appeared at Minshull Street Crown Court last Tuesday and was ordered to pay £120,000, a further £39,662 compensation to Tameside Council and £23,001 prosecution costs.

The court heard how investigators had uncovered assets belonging to Barcroft worth £794,342.

He proved he had acquired the money legitimately apart from £120,000 which was ruled to have been made by investing the cash claimed in his benefits scam.

He was given 28 days to pay or will have to serve two years in prison.

Barcroft fraudulently claimed £32,518 in benefits between April 1994 and November 2004. He admitted 12 counts and asked for a further 28 offences to be taken into consideration.

At his sentencing last year the judge told him benefit fraud was ‘rife’ and ‘a haemorrhage’ on the nation’s finances.

"You are a wealthy, educated man who has falsely claimed benefit for 10 years," he added.

Deputy leader of the council, Cllr Joe Kitchen said: "Although the council only ever considers court action as a last resort, we will not hesitate to do so if that’s what we feel is required. In this particular case I’m sure there are those who felt that the defendant’s custodial sentence would be the end of the matter. But people can rest assured that we will always do everything in our power to recoup what is essentially our residents’ money."

Minimal punishment for £17k benefit fraud

What is our judiciary coming to? This man deliberately committed significant benefit fraud and failed to turn up at court. Yet effectively he is just being asked for the money back.

A benefit thief who claimed £17,000 in Income Support and Council Tax Benefit that he wasn’t entitled to has escaped jail

Mohammed Javaid was interviewed by fraud investigators from Rochdale Council and the DWP in January 2008, after an allegation that he’d failed to declare his savings when applying for the benefits.

Javaid had originally lied and said he had no savings, but when confronted said the money had been saved for his brother and that some had been used to buy property.

Javaid initially failed to turn up at Bolton Crown Court in May - over a year later - when his case was due to be heard, so a warrant was issued for his arrest.

He has now been given a six month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, and a 12 month supervision order. He will also have to repay all of the money he claimed fraudulently.

htp Dave

• People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

The lure of a 'benefits agency'

Roughly a quarter of state spending goes on welfare benefits. But the system's an astonishing mess.

You'd think they'd keep an area of such humungous expenditure in apple pie order. But no. The structure of benefits lacks consistency. Benefits overlap. Some are taxable, some aren't. They taper off at different rates and at different levels. Some needs are confusingly addressed by more than one benefit. So the instructions for administering this untidy system are voluminous and obscure.

David Martin's paper on benefits simplification concentrates on providing an overview of the anomalies, and makes suggestions for eliminating them. His detailed treatment isn't suited to a general blog. But his project matters. Getting simplification right could help millions of claimants.

For instance, a woman with a disabled son, eligible for a series of different benefits, had to complete 10 application forms containing over 1,200 questions to get the support to which she was entitled. As we said before, DWP manuals on how to apply benefits run into 14 volumes and 8,690 pages! A separate four volumes, totalling 1,200 pages, cover the housing and council tax benefits is operated by local authorities while HMRC has a further 260-page manual devoted to tax credits.

Officials have little enough hope of getting everything right. A claimant has no hope at all. If the benefits are streamlined and put on one web site, claimants will have some chance of seeing how changes to their lives might affect their benefits.

David Martin suggests that benefits should be administered by a single agency which "could ensure that all benefits for eligibility conform with one another". This simple statement hides some issues.

First, if anomalous benefits are to be made consistent, someone has to decide which criteria are to be applied, and which rejected. These are sensitive political decisions which can't be sloughed off to some supposedly technical agency. Value judgements have to be made, lobbyists addressed. That's what politicians are for.

And the politicians have to have the drive and the will. After all, the DWP could do this simplification now if it wanted to. But its ministers don't seem to have the will. G Brown and cohorts have tinkered, though.

Since 1997 the Government has introduced the Working Families Tax Credit, Disabled Person’s Tax Credit, Childcare Tax Credit, Employment Credit, Children’s Tax Credit, Baby Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit, and the Employment and Support Allowance. They have abolished the Family Credit and also other benefits that they had themselves introduced – Working Families Tax Credit, Disabled Person’s Tax Credit, Children’s Tax Credit, Baby Tax Credit and the Employment Credit. They are also in the process of abolishing Incapacity Benefit. And these are only the most recent examples of the constant churning and revision of benefits over many years.

So government has to take a vow of chastity and promise not to meddle during the simplification project. This is what you have to do if you want to make big changes in a large organisation. Whether a politician with no experience of running a big organisation will ever understand this is another question.

As David Martin shows, the mere act of simplification will on its own help claimants. So it should be an easy political sale.

Ridiculous sentence for £43k benefit fraud

Shakunta Kaur and her husband Guljar Singh, from Southampton, repeatedly lied to claim income support, council tax benefit and housing benefit, Winchester Crown Court heard.

Kaur unlawfully claimed £43,901 between 2001 and 2007, while her husband took £6,841 in jobseekers’ allowance between 2006-07, said Gareth Munday, prosecuting.

Kaur, a mother of two children aged seven and three, pleaded guilty to two offences, while Singh admitted two others. Both defendants, of Dundee Road, Portswood, were of previous good character. That is to say, a six year fraud had gone undetected.

The court heard that so far Kaur had repaid just £118. A confiscation hearing will be held to determine what should happen to some £30,000 found in Kaur’s bank account, said Mr Munday.

Sentencing, Judge Tom Longbotham said that Kaur was close to a year-long sentence. He said that she had also lied in court to him at an earlier hearing.

He said: “She does not understand the difference between honest and dishonest behaviour.”

He rejected a pre-sentence report from the probation service that recommended a conditional discharge for Kaur.

The judge sentenced Kaur to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, and imposed a supervision order.

Singh was given a community order to do 150 hours’ unpaid work and to attend sessions with an education and employment advisor.

The judge said: “You cannot expect the state to support you and not make your own efforts, and furthermore, you cannot expect to remain unpunished if you are dishonest about the benefits you receive.”

• They've hardly been punished much, have they? People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have. A confiscation order should be automatic.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

Integrating tax and benefits

In his paper on benefits simplification, David Martin rightly says that "it is unfair to tax people who have an income as low as £6,475 a year". Of course G Brown the arch-complicator differs, and likes to control people as much as possible so that he can mould society to his obscure aims.

Similarly, never having run anything, he has no feel for the costs and inefficiencies involved in a pointlessly complex organisation. As David Martin says:

It is also a nonsense to tax people and at the same time pay them benefits, when the same result could be achieved by eliminating the tax and the benefit.

He also suggests that benefits could be better integrated with PAYE. Thus the amount of the benefit would simply be added to the claimant’s personal tax allowances in order to obtain the desired result.

Once suggested, this seems such an obviously good idea.

Indeed this approach could be extended to many other matters, such as student loans and maternity pay, which are currently handled by employers as part of their payroll management. A single PAYE code could be calculated to reflect all these amounts. It would be more efficient for Government agencies, with their specialised personnel and computer systems, to assume a larger administrative role. Employers, and especially small employers, would then obtain significant relief from some of the burdens currently imposed on them.

This too must be worth looking at.

Northampton benefits thief

A woman from Northampton has been convicted of illegally claiming more than £8,000 in benefits.

Alison McLaughlin, from Bellinge, claimed £7,409 in housing benefit and a further £694 in council tax benefit between June 2004 and June 2008, which she was not entitled to because her brother, who was employed, was living with her at the time.

The hearing was told McLaughlin had been invited to a string of interviews which she failed to attend and when she did finally, in July 2008, she stated her brother had never lived with her.

She was found guilty of obtaining benefits dishonestly and handed a community order with supervision for two years.

She was ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work, undertake a specified activity of education, training and employment for 12 days and repay the overpaid benefits.

Benefits thief ordered to repay £100k

A fraudster has been ordered to pay £100,000 to a council that he falsely claimed in benefits.

David Simpkiss and partner Xuan Anh Bui were found guilty of making fraudulent claims and jailed in March, and now a judge has ordered Simpkiss to repay the money or face an even longer jail term.

A confiscation order against Simpkiss was issued at Woolwich Crown Court on July 10 for £150,000, including £100,000 in compensation to Lewisham council, which had suffered from the fraudulent claims.

Simpkiss, from Greenwich, was found to have pocketed more than £270,000 from benefit fraud and other unknown sources of income.

Simpkiss and Bui were sentenced to 21 months and 15 months respectively in March, and now Simpkiss has four months to repay £150,000 in full or face another two years behind bars.

Bui, from Forest Hill, has been ordered to pay £24,064 in costs by September.

£41k fraudster sent for sentence

Joanne James, from Deeping St Nicholas, admitted dishonestly claiming £41,187 after twice failing to notify South Holland District Council of a change in her circumstances in 2003 and 2007.

She also admitted failing to inform the DWP and the council that her partner was living with her between August 28, 2007 and November 16, 2007.

Mrs James claimed she was a single mother with three children but she had been living with chimney sweep Darren James. The couple had married in July 2004, and Mr James used the address to apply for credit in 2003. He was also advertising his business from Mrs James's home address.

On February 7, 2003, Mrs James applied for housing and Council Tax benefits saying she lived with her three children and her only income was income support and child benefit.

In October 2007, she submitted a benefits review form, again stating it was just her and the children and their only income was income support, child tax credits and child benefit.

On both occasions she was living with Mr James.

The prosecution said: "Not only did she fail to notify a change in her circumstances, she made two false statements.

"She was living with her partner on the first occasion and by the second occasion they were married.

"In an interview she admitted that she knew this would affect her benefits but denied that Mr James was living with her.

"She said he was married to someone else and they did not live together."

When presented with evidence Mrs James admitted they had been living together since August 2002 and had married in 2004.

She said she didn't tell the council or the DWP because she needed the money.

Simplify the benefits system

The Centre for Policy Studies has published a paper Benefit simplification - how and why it must be done. It's free to download.

As the Telegraph reports, it estimates the total Treasury spending bill for more than 50 different kinds of benefits will be £186 billion next year - a quarter of all Government spending and more than is received by Government in income tax and corporation tax combined.

The complexity increases the risk of error, overpayment and fraud.

The paper recommends a single agency should be set up to control a new simplified system in which applicants would have to fill in one form.

Benefits are administered not only by the DWP, but also by HMRC, local councils and some other Government bodies.

DWP manuals on how to apply benefits run into 14 volumes and 8,690 pages! A separate four volumes, totalling 1,200 pages, cover the housing and council tax benefits is operated by local authorities while HMRC has a further 260-page manual devoted to tax credits.

A woman with a disabled son, eligible for a series of different benefits, had to complete 10 application forms containing over 1,200 questions to get the support to which she was entitled.

Sadly from the point of view of this blog, the paper makes few references to benefit fraud. However, complication helps fraud. We have regularly seen, for instance, lack of communication between benefit agencies.

As the paper points out, the system's complexity, born of repeated bolt-ons, makes democratic supervision and control impossible.

More posts about the paper over coming days.

NFI will include social housing fraud

The Audit Commission is extending the reach of its National Fraud Initiative (NFI) to help detect fraudsters who illegally occupy or sublet multiple council and housing association flats and homes.

Since 1996 the NFI has been matching data held by councils, fire and police authorities and the Government to prevent and detect fraud. To date an estimated £500 million of fraud and overpayments have been identified by the initiative.

The Government has announced that it is encouraging housing associations (Registered Social Landlords) to share the benefits of the NFI. One association’s records will be cross-checked with data from another as well as local authority lists, to expose potential tenancy fraud.

The aim is to identify tenants who are housed in social dwellings, but who fail entitlement rules because they have tenancies elsewhere.

The Audit Commission will examine data through a secure on-line website. The resulting matches will be released in the autumn.

Steve Bundred, Chief Executive of the Audit Commission said: “For every illegal tenancy there is a homeless tenant or family who stands to lose out. This is because housing that should have been theirs is occupied illegally by some one else holding two or more tenancies. It also represents a waste of taxpayers’ money.

“We are delighted to be working with government and local authorities on this initiative to root out the fraudsters who exploit the social housing system for personal gain.

“Extending our National Fraud initiative will help to prevent this type of fraud occurring in the future.”

Whistleblower catches benefit thief

A builder who claimed disability allowance saying he could barely walk faces jail after being caught on camera on rooftop scaffolding.

John Smart conned thousands of pounds out of taxpayers after telling benefits bosses he was severely disabled. He said he needed to use sticks or crutches to get around.

At the same time he was working as a building site manager climbing ladders and working on roofs. He worked for three separate companies in the Lewes and Uckfield areas between 2001 and 2006.

Smart was rumbled after a whistleblower took pictures of him on top of scaffolding at roof height and sent them to benefits bosses.

He now faces a prison sentence even though he has since suffered a massive stroke and is partly paralysed on one side.

He made genuine claims for the allowances after his mobility was affected in 1991. But he failed to tell the DWP his condition had improved when his case was reviewed in 2006.

He had admitted illegally claiming £12,683 he was not entitled to between 2001 and 2006.

Smart, from Crowborough, suffered a heart attack in April after he appeared in court and pleaded guilty to the charges.

Tony Loder, defending, said: “He was discharged from hospital and almost immediately suffered a massive stroke.

“They were effectively eight strokes at once on the right side of his brain and to a certain extent he is now paralysed on his right side.

“His use of crutches is now more to do with the effects of the stroke rather than his original complaint of immobility.”

Judge Simon Coltart adjourned the hearing until September 4 and ordered medical and pre-sentence reports to be prepared.

He said: “All options are open including an immediate custodial sentence as it seems to me that cannot be ruled out in this case.

“I would also like a medical report to consider his suitability to serve a prison sentence.”

£9k disability fraud

Marcus William Muller was working 40 hours a week as a shop security guard despite telling the authorities he could barely walk. He falsely claimed more than £9,160 in disability living allowance and incapacity benefits, Swansea magistrates were told.

Muller was in court for sentencing after previously admitting he failed to tell the department for social security his health had improved and he was working. He worked 10-hour shifts patrolling a shop despite claiming he was "virtually unable" to walk.

When questioned, he said he did not want to work but that he had to work because his wife had an expensive lifestyle. The court heard Muller, from Llansamlet, had separated from his wife.

He was given an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid community work.

Benefit claimant was working

A Cardigan mother was working at a local restaurant while claiming benefit from the DWP and over a period of nearly five months was overpaid £3,027. She started work on March 1 2008 but did not inform the Department of a change of circumstance until July 21.

And a court was told it would take Helen Clark the best part of twelve years to repay the department at the rate of £5 per week.

She was given a Community Order for 12 months with a requirement to undertake 50 hours unpaid work in the community.

Ex-parish councillor in benefit fraud

David Woollas was formerly a member of Belton Parish Council. When he first submitted a claim for council tax benefit, he stated he had about £5,000 in savings. He made a later claim for Income Support, again not declaring he owned other properties and £20,000 worth of Premium Bonds.

An investigation was launched and it was discovered Woollas owned a property in Doncaster, which he rented out. And he had also bought and sold a house in Leeds during that period, using the proceeds to buy a holiday home in Majorca. He was discovered to have total assets of £323,628.

Over the period of the false benefit claims, he had illegally obtained a total of £5,148 of taxpayers' money. He admitted a total of 12 false benefit claims.

The case was adjourned for an all option report and he will be sentenced on August 5.