Benefit Cheat runs 3 miles daily. Fraudulently claims £70k

The big brains have bigger fish to fry I suspect

An even bigger mystery is why are there 10 times as many prosecutions for benefit fraud as there are for tax evasion, even though tax evasion costs the country many times the money lost to benefit fraud.

It does upset me that people do this, I work and live in pain every day, some days all I can do is work and nothing for quality of life afterwards due to pain and exhaustion

I don't know how people do this and face the world... I would feel terrible

Because people on benefit are an easy mark and "low hanging fruit". Whereas the big corporations and the super rich with their hedge funds and off shore accounts have clever lawyers and tax accountants. Thats why they are not paying their share of tax.

Worth reading this in terms of delivery of the system, which is overloaded and struggling - end result, people in need don't get help, and cheating possible.

www.jrf.org.uk/problems-in-the-delivery-of-benefits-tax-credits-and-employment-services

I think it's time the OP changed her reading matter.

Can someone please start a thread about decent people honestly claiming benefits? Ah, no .... that would be difficult because we do not hear about them and there are so many of them that they are not newsworthy.

Criminals operate everywhere. In 2023 £2.3 billion was lost to scams in the UK. The state will get scammed as will individual citizens, it's a fact of life. Some criminals will claim benefits as their preferred crime, it does not mean all benefit claimants are criminals. Many disabled people feel like they are treated like criminals when trying to make legitimate claims.

You'd have to read a different newspaper.

An interesting read, Wyllow3, but that report was written in 2008. Things seemed bad then but sound a lot worse now.

That was answering Luckygirl3.

MaizieD

I think it's time the OP changed her reading matter.

There have been countless TV programmes about this too. It has been going on for years with no sign of improvement.

A few years back I tried to help a very elderly lady who had a middle aged Down’s syndrome daughter. They were getting very little in the way of help. If anybody deserved help they did. We had to fill in lots of forms and provide lots of evidence so I am questioning how it seems so easy to get round the system and claim benefits you are not entitled to.

Greyisnotmycolour

Criminals operate everywhere. In 2023 £2.3 billion was lost to scams in the UK. The state will get scammed as will individual citizens, it's a fact of life. Some criminals will claim benefits as their preferred crime, it does not mean all benefit claimants are criminals. Many disabled people feel like they are treated like criminals when trying to make legitimate claims.

Nobody has suggested that and as the OP I certainly did not.🙂

VioletSky

It does upset me that people do this, I work and live in pain every day, some days all I can do is work and nothing for quality of life afterwards due to pain and exhaustion

I don't know how people do this and face the world... I would feel terrible

I have met many people like you and I really feel for you. Like you, I don’t know how people who take money from genuinely needy people can live with themselves.

biglouis

Because people on benefit are an easy mark and "low hanging fruit". Whereas the big corporations and the super rich with their hedge funds and off shore accounts have clever lawyers and tax accountants. Thats why they are not paying their share of tax.

Maybe start another thread biglouis.🙂

Biglouis is talking about tax avoidance, which is entirely legal. How many times does the difference between avoidance and evasion have to be explained?

It's not a case of either or.

It's all cheating.

.
There's a difference between 'Tax Avoidance' and 'Tax Evasion'.

I do whatever I can to reduce my tax at do most people and take advantage of Government schemes that allow me to do so.

I have a friend who absolutely sneers at me if she becomes aware that I've bought something from Amazon (which I do - a lot!). Quote - "No way would I buy anything from those b******s until they pay proper tax in the UK". I

I've repeatedly explanned that they aren't doing anything illegal and if she doesn't like it she should campaign for a change in the Law. But she won't of course as (a) she likes moaning and camplaining, and (b) as my Great Aunt Lil would have said, 'she's all mouth and no trousers'!!

I was ready with information details re off-shore accounts, Family Trust set-ups and a Family Charity if I won last Tuesdays Euro lottery.

I didn't win! But if I ever do. I would be immediately looking at ways to legally and ethically limit my tax liabilities.

..

Tax avoidance is not cheating. Do you have ISAs? That’s tax avoidance.

Germanshepherdsmum

Tax avoidance is not cheating. Do you have ISAs? That’s tax avoidance.

I know.

But tax evasion is cheating.

Germanshepherdsmum

Biglouis is talking about tax avoidance, which is entirely legal. How many times does the difference between avoidance and evasion have to be explained?

I meant cheating the benefit system and tax evasion.

All I can say us that if these people find it all so easy, they could have a side job helping out those of in genuine need, who find it totally demeaning, dehumanising, exhausting and frightening and difficult.

For once I cannot say "change your reading matter" as it was covered on the BBC website which is where I read it. I expect the gutter press will jump on it of course in great detail. But hey that's what they do.

So nobody is bothered that fraudsters are ripping off the system and people who genuinely qualify for benefits might not be getting what they need?

Nobody has any ideas on how the system could be made secure either?