Public attitudes to benefit fraud

With the survey interviews undertaken way back in February, DWP Communications finally publishes the results in December. Headlines

• The proportion of people claiming to have seen, read or heard anything about benefit fraud was high (79%), despite a decrease in campaign spend over the last year.
  
  
• Over half of the general public sample perceived benefit fraud as being easy to get away with (53%). This was lower amongst national claimants (41%).
  
  
• The general public are less likely to think that the consequences of getting caught committing fraud are serious than claimants. 44% of the general public sample agreed that the penalties of getting caught committing benefit fraud are ‘not that bad’, compared to 36% of the national claimant sample.
  
  
• There is a general acceptance amongst both the general public and national claimants that benefit fraud is wrong. 74% of the general public sample and 72% of the national claimants sample thought that benefit fraud is wrong all of the time, regardless of the circumstances.
  
  
• 65% of the national claimant sample said that they ‘definitely would’ report a change in their life or circumstances to JCP or their local council straight away.
  
  
• Around a quarter (26%) of the national claimant sample were ‘on the cusp’ of becoming fraudsters while 4% said that they ‘definitely would not’ report a change in circumstances straight away. 5% of the sample responded ‘don’t know’ to this question.
  
  
• 42% of the general public sample said that they ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ would report a neighbour who they knew was claiming more money than they were entitled to. This was slightly lower amongst national claimants at 36%.