The Conservatives have followed Labour’s lead in proposing even harsher sanctions for people accused of benefit fraud. This punitive approach is counterproductive.
It’s dispiriting to see the Conservatives today follow Labour’s lead in proposing even harsher sanctions for people accused of benefit fraud. There are several problems with this increasingly punitive approach.
Firstly, almost all those defrauding the system do so out of need, not greed. They need a few hours work to tide them over – to pay a surprise bill, or replace the microwave. Declaring it to the Jobcentre would mean any earnings are deducted from benefits, leaving them with no extra money. Punishing these people is unfair, but also destructive – they need stepping stones to a job and higher income, not sanctions. The occasional extreme case of greed you read about in the papers does not reflect the lives of most of those on benefits.
Secondly, benefit fraud is not as big a problem as either party might have you believe. Less than 1 per cent of benefit claimants commit fraud (56,000 out of 5.8 million), and more money is wasted each year on error (around £2 billion) than is given to people claiming fraudulently. Meanwhile, about £1.2 billion is underpaid, meaning people desperately in need of benefits do not receive them. Advertising campaigns that flame the public perception that everyone on benefits is a cheat are actively stigmatising and harmful.
Thirdly, while both parties would argue that sanctions act as a deterrent, they don’t seem to have considered the fate of those they sanction. These, by definition, are not people with wealth to fall back on. Denying people benefits, for 13 weeks or 3 years, is going to force them further into debt and eventually destitution. It’s hard to see how this is addressing the causes of poverty.
In short, politicians might be surprised to discover how much fraud would go down if they sorted out the benefits system so it worked better for the people it’s meant to serve. In the meantime, don’t drive people further into poverty.
13 Responses to “Cracking down on benefit fraud is counter-productive”
Cracking down on benefit fraud is counter-productive « The best Labour blogs
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G
I agree Will, sadly the system is just wrong from top to bottom. Maybe one requirement would be that people actually have to go somewhere each week day for a number of hours to at least give them a reason to get up and out.
Job centres need to be more pro-active and operate more like a recruitment agency. Give the employees bonuses when they find people work if need be (increase their desire to help people). If someone is long term unemployed then make it a requirement to train in something – just try to give people a reason to get out of bed, give them a skill, give them some pride and self-confidence back.
For a year introduce a scheme – for the first year back in work make it tax and Ni free and give them 100% of their benefits 1st month and reduce the benefit contribution % over 6 months (it should still be cheaper than them claiming for everything – with the advantage they will soon be contributors)
As for the real blatant benefit cheats. Give them a amnesty for the same year to sort out their claim status and then announce a new “benefit fraud helpline” – offer people 50% of the money that would be saved on the claimant for 6 months. Suddenly you better prey your friends are real good friends because £10-20k in your a/c for a phone call is going to testing.
MissTJD
More money wasted thro' error than fraud: RT @leftfootfwd: Cracking down on benefit fraud is counter-productive http://bit.ly/9Y5IFM
Mark M
So let me just get this straight. We have 3,000 benefit fraud officers trying to track down 56,000 benefits cheats – we pay out £2bn more in error, offset partly by £1.2bn unclaimed.
For once I agree. We shouldn’t be cracking down on benefit fraud. We should rip up the whole system and replace it with one that’s simple and actually works (i.e. acts as a safety net that incentivises work, rather than creating a welfare dependency).
Will
Mark Easton published a very interesting piece on this. Apparently no-one has ever been convicted of benefit fraud three times, and only 69 people last year were convicted of it for the second time.
Theresa May claims it will send a message to potential benefit cheats, but it doesn’t seem as though that message is necessary (and neither are the less severe but still harsh penalties included in the Welfare Reform Bill, which have not yet been introduced). Instead the message is aimed at the electorate.