Just had a thought! If fraudsters can be successful claiming benefits, how come we struggle? How do they do it? Does anybody know a benefit fraudster because I need some advice? Pat
I know what you mean. Its close to 0.5% are fakers. But they make out everyone is. I knew someone who was on jsa then bumped their knee (not a bad bump or even a bruise) but put on a limp then went on incapacity benefits. God knows i want to get better and return to work, as i imagine we all do. Its all so frustrating
Hi Pat, yes Darren is right… only 0.5% are fakers… DWP own stats… I think that’s 1 in every 2,000… is that right? Terrible maths!
When we fill in the forms we tell the truth… so if we can walk to the shops we tell them we can walk to the shops. Fakers of course are telling a pack of lies… so they really make it sound bad… like they can’t get out of bed let alone walk to the shops.
It’s easier for them as they have no emotional involvement… they are detached from the process… the whole aim being to fake a claim. We are emotionally involved. It is OUR LIFE we are having to describe and we feel we are entitled to the benefit by telling the truth because we know there is no way we could work or we can work but need the extra help (as with DLA).
There will never be a fullproof system that is fair for genuine claims. If they try, as they are supposedly doing now, to eliminate fakers then the genuine people are punished… although in truth the current policy isn’t really about eliminating fakers but is about getting us all onto cheaper benefits.
Don’t be conned into thinking the current harassment is about getting rid of the fakers. It’s government properganda. They know there will always be a tiny number of fakers. The current system is designed to harass genuinely ill and disabled people onto cheap benefits.
Don’t waste energy getting angry about fakers… get angry at this Government!!!
Pat x
By fraudsters do you mean the banksters in the City that caused the economic mess in the first place? They seem to have been getting away with it for years and on an industrial scale compared to any welfare cheat. It must be very comforting to be allowed to keep their customary obscene profit and be safe in the knowledge that catastrophic losses will be privatised by the Country (us).
I suspect that making huge financial donations to the Old Etonian Party is the answer to your question, although all Governments need to take a close look at themselves.
Hello, I didn’t get much sleep last night thinking about this damn Government. I know that whoever got in would struggle with issues but I really felt that Labour cared about people, whoever and whatever their circumstances were. I got very emotional seeing Gordon Brown leave No.10 and everyday I realise why I cried. Every Government blames the one before and they are using it now to divert people’s attention from the fact that they are failing to do better and they are causing people to suffer who are already suffering through no fault of their own. Wasn’t David Cameron’s son disabled? How can he in all honestly ask people who have waited outside a consultants room, been given life changing news to cope with no support from their Government? I am awaiting my results and whatever they may be, I am left petrified of what will happen. I got made redundant last year so that was a huge financial blow and a relief at the same time as i wasn’t coping. My Saturday job is physically demanding so that is on shaky ground. My husband works but he is a lecturer in the college I was made redundant from so there is always that threat. Our son is 7 and he must sense things even though we try our best to shield him. I now, potentially may have a diagnosis coming that will change a few things. What this pathetic excuse for a Government need to realise is that attacking welfare is one thing but to put people on JSA/ESA (I’ve probably got that wrong) so that we have to look for work. How the hell is that going to work when we all know that most employers do not want to employ people with health issues. I know for a fact that my boss took that into consideration when choosing between me and my colleague. I know it shouldn’t happen but it does. When I got to claim JSA, contribution based for 6 months only, the advisor told me to remove the fact I was a mother from my CV because it would put employers off even interviewing me!!! So, add a Neurological condition, what do you think the outcome of that would be? Hhmmnn Sorry for the rant, I m fuming about this at the moment. It really isn’t fair, none of us asked for this and now we are being punished. Sam xx
Fakers are liars and very good at it, everyone knows one only they come across as having a multitude of disabling issues, none of them proven beyond doubt, so of course they get full whack everything available as nobody double checks. I honestly do not know how fakers can be caught, but what I do know is all which has been said above is to reduce the benefits bill, regardless of who is affected, including the disabled. Right now child tax credit and the obese are their target population of the welfare bill - who will be left to go after next I wonder? Darn right it wont be the people with the broadest shoulders nor the .ankers who should all be in prison for their immoral ineptitude.
The poor hve always been easy targets, along with the disabled. Vulnerability is such but abuse in 2013 should have been eradicted along with poverty - instead governments across the world now turn a blind eye - abuse in its worst guise, that of immoral fortitude.
Leaders are not leaders made leaders without a multitude of followers - in the end all those ignoring what is happening will reap the rewards of anger/frustration be it in marches, or worse. Yes it should be anger towards governments of whatever ilk who ignore us at their peril.
bren
x
The kind of fakers you are talking about are ‘schooled’ by people who know the benefits system inside out.Allegedly, there is an extended family who live within a mile of me,and nobody has worked since the 1950s.There are benefits out there which very few ,apart from the professional scroungers know about.
A ‘bad back’ used to be the mainstay of sickness claims…No longer…Mental health is the ‘golden ticket’ now.If a patient presents to a GP, and says" Doctor Doctor,I’m so unhappy,and I think about killing myself,all the time", the GP MUST take action,and the claims process begins.Mental Health issues are apparently easy to fake,for those who ‘know’ and are helped
As the system has got more complicated,and dedicated at rooting out cheats,to the ‘professional’ their job is made easier.
Wb
Benefit fraudsters are the Con Party Boogy man. They exist I suppose but in tiny numbers – the media make it sound like every other person who is disabled or out of work is defrauding the system.
I used to volunteer in an advice center and 98% of the people who were in trouble with the DWP was because of failure to report a change of circumstances. I never saw anyone who had made a fraudulent initial claim. No glass backs or people working on the knock.
It makes me sick to my stomach that genuine people are made to feel like cheats ad scroungers while its still AOK to fiddle your taxes.
Jane
Hi
Back to the original question and away from the politics of politics… Fraudsters get away with it because people who suspect or know people who fraud the system fail to report them. We cant expect the DWP to spot every fraudster without the help of the public.
Call the fraud hotline on 0800 854 440 or by https://secure.dwp.gov.uk/benefitfraud/
regards
Neil
I think fraudsters are just so well attuned to what they are trying to do but I also think that , no matter what you do, people will always defraud something, you’ll never get rid of every fraudster, it’s a bit like burglars, you can only make your house so secure, if someone wants to break in they’ll manage it somewhere somehow. Cheryl:-)
ive the oppinion since having ms to never judge others. in the past ive saw people park in disabled bays at supermarkets and thought what, you are jokeing. theres nothing wrong with you.
not now as ive realised that people dont allways show there illness. who im i to judge? i dont put my head in the sand and realise that there is people thats commiting fraud but theres a hell of alot thats not. billions of pounds a year in unclaimed benifits that people are not told about. who are the real fraudsters?
i say the system!
I recently read tax evasion costs the treasury 15 billion a year, whereas benefit fraud costs 1 billion (based on 2008 data) http://citywire.co.uk/money/tax-evasion-costs-treasury-15-times-more-than-benefit-fraud/a378274 That puts benefit fraud into perspective as far as I am concerned. The government is yet to effectively address the 15 billion, in fact it is noticably reticent to do anything about it.
I also don’t see it as my role to judge other people.
Hi, well if you watch Scroungers and Saints on BBC1 in a morning, you`ll see examples of genuine and fake claimants.
The cheats have such bravaderie and absolutely no conscience about fraudulenty claiming DLA and the like. It is good to see them get banged up or heavily fined.
Makes you spit, it really does!
luv Pollx
My dad has a rare condition which has affected his kidneys, eyes, lungs and bones and he is one step away from needing dialysis. It has also left him riddled with arthritis in most of his joints. Five years ago he was a very fit man who tended his allotment every day after doing his full time job. He is due to retire very soon although he is on very light duties now as he is so poorly but he prefers to keep going as he seizes up if he sits still for too long.
There is a man on the same set of allotments who claims full benefits as he has a ‘bad back’ yet he digs his allotment, sows the seed, bends to weed, picks the veg etc - all things which my dad can no longer do. My dad does now claim full mobility DLA but needed a lot of help completing the forms as they are so complex. This other man practically boasts that he has not worked for many years and is much younger than dad. When dad asked him how he can manage the allotment so well with a bad back he said that doesn’t affect his back but he cannot work at any job and he cannot do housework as that puts his back out!
The mind boggles!
Tracey
i dont know bout fakin it, but i know my cousin has already got a way round to be on benefits for aslong as possible…she decided that as soon as her kids are of school age then she gets pregnant by different men, shes done this 3 times so far, as far as shes concerned the more kids she has the less chance anyone will make her work, and the more money she will keeps getting in for them, this makes me sick and really angry, i have ms n i want to try to work but things atm i cant, i would love to have a baby but my body wont let me, yet she pops out babys just to stop her working coz she doesnt want to, shes never worked a day in her life, yet i have and i get penalised n demeaning assessments n she gets away with it, she palms her kids off on anyone she can just to be with her new boyfriend at the time, so far from last count she went thru 6 men last year, ive tried shoppin her to the dwp but she gets away with it, she is a classic sociopathic liar and can sell ice to the eskimo’s
This sort of thing just makes me so mad, I used to be a regular gym goer before I got struck down with ms and there was a couple of lets say middle aged people who parked their very nice jaguar car in the nearest disabled bay to the entrance and sure enough they had a blue badge. They had no trouble getting out of the car or lifting bags etc, but I thought maybe they were going swimming which is a good rehabilitation exercise if they were disabled. But oh no… both of them used to run on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes and then they would do all the resistance machines, do the rounds on the weights and finish up on the cycles and cross trainers… I mean my god, I’m sorry but you just wouldn’t be able to do all that and say that you were disabled enough to warrant a blue badge. I assume and I may be wrong here that you have to be registered as having a lot of difficulty walking and moving much to qualify for a blue badge. I reported the car reg. and blue badge details to the DWP and the local council as I was so angry that they were quite obviously not eligible for a blue badge and were taking up a car space which would have helped someone who was genuinely needing to park there, but I’ve no idea whether they ever got caught. Even if they were using somebody elses car and badge that would still be fraudulent use of a blue badge. I’ll probably get replies on here telling me to mind my own business again but I’m afraid I agree with Pat, these people are fraudsters and need to be stopped as they are just making a mockery out of the whole system which incidentally is a bit of a shambles.
ater reading that, im not gona say mind your own business, they obviously are up to something, so they need to be stopped
Like Poll, l have watched several episodes of ‘Saints and Scroungers’. The fraudsters they uncover are getting thousands in benefits - usually owning multiple properties and using several names. One woman -Nigerian -had several passports - and was claiming for several people and loads of children who did not exist. lt was later found that she was doing the same thing in Sweden . Even using the benefit money to fund properties abroad. And nearly all of them can hardly speak English. They are taking us for fools. Did you know that colleges run special classes for non -English speaking people showing them how to ‘claim’ from US. We need classes for us to show us what we are really intitled to and how to go about it. Perhaps we should get these ‘fraudsters’ to start giving us some lessons.
But then - me no understandee - me no speake english.
F.
Hi The DWP do take these things seriously and it can take a lot of investigating to catch them. I would encourage anyone to report people than leave it to the DWP to look into it. It won’t be sorted in a matter of days / weeks it will take much longer. If the people are genuine then it will be sorted. People who abuse either DLA or blue badges are surely doing genuine claimants a disservice. Some people say its not their job to judge and report it" If you saw a shoplifter or robber would you not report it and say the police should sort it without help, All the best to everyone Neil
no i would not report it. not my buisness and were i live your called a grass for such things. not a thing you want on your shouldes in my area i tell you that!
shoot me down all you like thats just the way it is with me