Despite claims by Prime Minister David Cameron that the government is tackling benefit fraud and errors, new figures have come to light showing that the figures lost have actually increased by £300m since the coalition government came into power in 2010. Mr Cameron had said that the new government would impose an uncompromising crackdown on fraud and errors when the government came into power in 2010 and while fraud levels have remained fairly stable, errors by claimants and benefits staff have increased.
When the coalition government was elected in 2010, newly appointed Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to cut spending and tackle the welfare overspend. One of the ways in which he aimed to do this was to cut down on the incidents of fraud, and to tackle the errors that were committed by both claimants and the benefits departments. Despite any claims, however, these latest figures tell a very different story.
The Department for Work and Pensions claims that it is fixing the welfare system, but the National Audit Office, who are in charge of overseeing government spending and budgets, have said that the massive losses are unacceptable. They have refused to sign off the department’s accounts because of the massive scale of this problem, which has seen the amount lost rise by 9% in the last three years.
Benefit claimants can defraud the system in a number of ways. The most obvious is to claim benefits that they are not entitled to. Jobseeker’s Allowance, for example, cannot be claimed by those that are working, but fraudsters may seek work that pays cash in hand while claiming benefits. Housing benefit is another area where fraud is rife. More than £3.5bn was lost last year, and £1.2bn was as a result of fraud.
Fraud isn’t the only problem, however. £1.6bn was said to have been lost as a result of errors by claimants while £800m was lost because benefit officials paid out too much money to claimants. A total rise of more than £300m was seen across the three different areas between 2010, when Mr Cameron became Prime Minister, and last year.