Data matching should have nipped this in the bud

A Stretford man must complete 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £375 in costs after he was found guilty of benefit fraud.

Thomas Heald was convicted of dishonestly obtaining job seekers allowance and housing and council tax benefit.

The 35-year-old pleaded guilty at Trafford Magistrates’ Court on December 23 to failing to report changes in his circumstances and making false statements to the Department for Work and Pensions and Trafford Council’s benefits department.

Having failed to declare he had started work as a cook in a care home, Heald was overpaid benefits amounting to £3,672 between September 2009 and July 2010.

Heald will now have to repay all the money he falsely claimed.

Council counter fraud officers were alerted to this matter following a data matching exercise.

This highlighted how Heald was receiving payments of working tax credits, indicating he had started work but failed to report this to anyone.

• It's morally wrong for the state to put this temptation in the way of the poor. The state has the information, and the right thing to do is for the state to apply the information as a matter of routine and not leave it to individuals to take the initiative.