A benefits insider writes to the Express

The Express highlights the rising costs of housing benefit, which has now reached £17bn a year.

Yvette Cooper announced plans to cap rents paid to private landlords of up to £1,800 a week to prevent claimants living in palatial homes on benefits. The reforms will calculate the sums allowed by excluding the top five to 10 per cent of rents charged by private landlords – an average cut of at least £100 a month. But, says the paper, a shortage of social housing means the bill is likely to keep rising.

An insider has added a comment there:

The whole of the benefits system is riddled with incompetence. Those who are in the know can easily and cynically exploit the system whilst those with a genuine need often find claiming to be a nightmare.

As someone who was one of those underfunded few involved in the almost impossible task of trying to stem the tide of benefit fraud, I am appalled to find that successive governments and their town hall toadies still continue to find ways of spending more of our money on unecessary benfit payments whilst apparently not being held to account for losses. It would appear that these are simply written off as 'acceptable losses'.No wonder we continually face increased taxes.It is time goverment faced up to its respnsibilites and started cracking down hard on this blatant leeching of public funds.

h/t Dave