400,000 benefits cheats show scale of workshy Britain

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400,000 benefits cheats show scale of workshy Britain

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One of the Government’s ideas for saving money has been to identify those claiming sickness benefits who are actually perfectly capable of working.
For some it could be a question of needing some extra help. But for others, the suspicion being quite a lot, they were scroungers. On the fiddle. Defrauding the system. People who were entirely capable of working but chose not to - or chose to work in the black economy while claiming Employment and Support Allowance.
There are over 2.5 million people claiming ESA - the number on Job Seekers Allowance (the dole) is 1.5 million. Those who claim ESA rather than JSA get an extra £1,000 a year.
Those suspicions are confirmed by figures released today on Work Capability Assessment. These were checks made to see if those claiming the benefit were genuinely unfit for work.
For a start 36 per cent of people were classed as ‘claim closed before assessment complete.’ Some of these will have simply been people who had a genuine short term illness and happened to recover at just the time of the assessment. But there will also have been many scroungers who decided the game was up.
Of those who went ahead with assessment, 65 per cent were judged fit to work. Most of them accepted the decision and of those who appealed most had their appeal turned down.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/a...00-benefits-cheats-scale-workshy-Britain.html

Edit(thanks to custard)
Whilst I agree the scroungers must be stopped I'm sure some genuine people will be effected to.
It seems to me that they move the goals every year to suit how much money they have spare.
This year there's a bit of a squeeze, the goals are sitting on the center line.
 
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Seriously??........is anyone actually bothered about his opinion?

Fight! Fight! Fight!

On a more serious note, hooray! Less scroungers. The less scroungers there are the more attention that can be focused on the genuine.
 
Seriously??........is anyone actually bothered about his opinion?

Well you seemed bothered enough to read & reply :rolleyes:

Whilst I agree the scroungers must be stopped I'm sure some genuine people will be effected to.
It seems to me that they move the goals every year to suit how much money they have spare.
This year there's a bit of a squeeze, the goals are sitting on the center line.

And yes, I agree with what you are putting across, although I believe the country to be riddled with scroungers, there are often the most needy thrown by the wayside (n) They are often the ones who don't know how to screw the system.

They state that, '36 per cent of people were classed as ‘claim closed before assessment complete'
They would love to put this down to people being scared off by the medicals.

However, during the summer last year, I needed a couple of weeks of being tide over.

Because I wasn't unemployed, I couldn't claim JSA.
Because my youngest turned 10 a little while later I couldn't claim income support.
Because I'm disabled, finding a job for a few weeks, would be near impossible. But that actually makes sod all difference!!
Because I had no income, I wouldn't be entitled to any tax credits.

Because my youngest is autistic, I would be fine, if I registered him and claimed for him, I could then claim income support for those weeks. But, I told them, claiming to look after my own child went against what I believe to be right. He is my son and I've looked after him since he was born, nothing has changed.
It went on like that, so because I was honest and said it was only for a couple of weeks, I wasn't allowed anything!!

So doctor said, this is insane and signed me off, I put in a claim for ESA OMG you have to try it to believe how useless these bunch of idiots are!! They are no better than the CSA, no wonder the country is in a mess...left hand does not know what the right is doing.
In the end, the time was up, we had struggled through and I closed the claim.

Had I got better? No
Had I bottled out, cos I was a scrounger making it up? No

But I could have sat on my arse, claimed for my son, stayed on the dole and (I would also then be entitled to carers allowance)

I started to see just how upside down the system really is!!
 
i am entitled to carers allowance but i dont claim it

I dunno if you feel the same as me, but I kinda felt that it's an easy path to go down (and one that is encouraged by the welfare) but if you do go down that path, it would be a hard one to get out of, like jumping in an easy pit.

I just felt like that then I would be in the system and whatever I earn from then on, or whatever potential, would always be factored against with benefits in mind...if that makes sense.
 
But, I can see, those who actually don't need it and who don't want to work (where I used to live was full of the 'back problem' or 'depression' people) it would be bloody tempting.

There was a couple I used to know, they had 1 child of school age, her previous 4 children were in care/gone for adoption. She had agraphobia and he 'cared' for her.
But this fear of going outside, seemed to be fine when she went to the cafe down the town every day, sitting on the outside table in the summer, having a good laugh with her bunch of croney's!!! :mad:
 
I dunno if you feel the same as me, but I kinda felt that it's an easy path to go down (and one that is encouraged by the welfare) but if you do go down that path, it would be a hard one to get out of, like jumping in an easy pit.

I just felt like that then I would be in the system and whatever I earn from then on, or whatever potential, would always be factored against with benefits in mind...if that makes sense.

i would be totally bored if i got it an paid some one to come in a do stuff, rather just put up with the pain an get on with it,
 
I'd like to know where all the Jobs are at this point in time for all the genuine workshy that do get found out....
 
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