Ministers have been urged to publish more accurate figures on benefit fraud to stop fuelling the impression that many claimants are “scroungers.”{jcomments on}

In a report published today, an all-party committee of MPs said the Government should issue separate statistics about fraud and error on different days so that the media could not imply that mistakes made in paying benefits were fraudulent claims.

Pressure groups have accused ministers of portraying people living on social security as “skivers” and contrasting them with “hard-working” families who get up early to go to work.

The Work and Pensions Select Committee said the estimated rate of fraud is 0.7 per cent of total spending on benefits, but the public’s “misperception” is that it is about 34 times higher than that.

Read the story in The Independent

Comments

Write comments...
or post as a guest
Loading comment... The comment will be refreshed after 00:00.

Be the first to comment.

Free PIP, ESA & UC Updates!

Delivered Fortnightly

Over 110,000 claimants and professionals subscribe to the UK's leading source of benefits news.

 
iContact
We use cookies

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.