200k people wrongly investigated over faulty government algorithm!

My comment back to the nasty comment about trolls is that it takes one to know one ! We don’t get many on here and if we did I would leave and I think others would as well.

AGAA4

I was interested in your post until you started insulting other posters. Calling people trolls and in their ivory towers was very unpleasant.

Same here. We are all entitled to our opinion and those who don't follow the OP's beliefs and opinions should not be insulted because of it.

The answer is simple. It's much easier to go after those who are poor and possibly inadequate in their dealings with the authorities. Similarly it is easier for HMRC to go after those who owe small amounts of tax or who don't declare their cash in hand income than it is to go after the Mrs Sunak of the world. ie non doms who are in fact doms.

The figure of 200,000 claims is mentioned in the Govt. publication www.gov.uk/government/publications/fighting-fraud-in-the-welfare-system/fighting-fraud-in-the-welfare-system-going-further.

"This year we have reviewed over 200,000 claims, finding and putting right incorrect declarations on almost 50,000 claims, and stopping individuals from building up debts. This has included finding unreported capital of over £16,000, wrongly declared self-employment expenses, and undisclosed second homes."

That is a small part of the publication.

There are also some case studies. One of them is -

" Case Study: Economic, Serious and Organised Crime - Operation Volcanic

Five members of an organised gang pleaded guilty in court in April 2024 after Economic, Serious & Organised Crime investigators identified an organised attack on our benefits system involving fabricated claims resulting in more than £50 million being overpaid. This is DWP’s largest benefit fraud case to date and involved conspiracy and money laundering crimes.

The investigation uncovered:

Production and supply of fake tenancy agreements and employment claims, counterfeit payslips, and GP notes
Creation of shell companies for false employment
‘Benefit factories’ which appeared to be legitimate businesses
Money laundering from the false benefit claims
Sharing of forged documents via WhatsApp
‘Claim packs’ at the benefit factories and suspects’ houses.

All five defendants pleaded guilty before the trial was due to commence and they will be sentenced in May 2024.
Specialist Financial investigators will continue their work to identify assets and recover stolen monies.

I wonder whether any of the defendants in that case were the same people who sometimes post on GN with a list of the fake documents they can provide?

Can we have a source for this please, OP?

You had me onside until you started banging your drum - of course the algorithm should be changed if a large majority of the people identified are subsequently being cleared. However, it must have correctly identified tens of thousands of people who were guilty of fraud - I hope they were severely dealt with. I can assure you my husband and I have worked bloody hard all our lives for our "ivory tower" - a standard 3 bedroom detached house in a pleasant rural area - and it really pisses me off when we are seen as the bad guys, having paid our taxes, raised our family, put our children through university and having never resorted to criminality to get where we are and have what we have. Oh, and we have never inherited a penny! But hey, we're just the working class that shoulder the burden of the benefits system. Yes, of course the system should be in place for those who need and deserve it, but I reserve the right to call out the scroungers - and there are plenty.

I was interested in your post until you started insulting other posters. Calling people trolls and in their ivory towers was very unpleasant.