10 people overpaid by 2 million pounds

[strange6]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3765566/2m-benefits-overpaid-to-just-ten-claimants.html

I have been scratching my head about this all day and for the life of me I just can't figure out how anybody can get overpaid to the tune of 100's of thousands of pounds in state hand-outs. When I was unemployed for those 4 long months at the beginning of the year, I just got my rent paid of 300 pounds per month, my council tax of 57 pounds per month and 240 pounds a month to live on with the JSA.
If this story is true then I think it's quite fair to assume that the Welfare state is paying a major contribution to the social crisis that we now face in this country.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

K J , do you realise how many pies you can buy in Wigan market for two million pounds.

 

[martinsh]

Unfortunately, I wasn't one of the 10 !

 

[LE Greys]

Did any of them do a bunk with the money?

And if anyone did just give it back, I'll bet the ungrateful so-and-sos didn't allow them to keep a small percentage as a reward for honesty.

 

[strange6]

K J , do you realise how many pies you can buy in Wigan market for two million pounds.

4 million if you go to the pound bakery! (2 pies for a pound)

 

[SS4]

In other words the article ignores most of the facts, elicits an emotional reaction, credits the reader with the intelligence of a five year old and falls apart under scrutiny -- Typical sun rubbish in other words.


By the way tax avoidance eclipses benefit fraud...

 

[strange6]

In other words the article ignores most of the facts, elicits an emotional reaction, credits the reader with the intelligence of a five year old and falls apart under scrutiny -- Typical sun rubbish in other words.


By the way tax avoidance eclipses benefit fraud...

That was the whole point of my OP. Which facts does it ignore? Either 10 people have been over paid obscene amounts of money or they haven't? And why bring tax avoidance into the equation? Are you bringing social class into this?

 

[exile]

I imagine it's a combination of amount of overpayment and length of time it continued, or possibly multiple claims under different names. Tax avoidance should certainly be mentioned given the Tax Dodgers' Alliance gets its usual rent-a-quote in the article.

 

[SS4]

That was the whole point of my OP. Which facts does it ignore? Either 10 people have been over paid obscene amounts of money or they haven't? And why bring tax avoidance into the equation? Are you bringing social class into this?

My problem is with the way that the article is written, it is incredibly condescending, judgmental, has far too much opinion in it and tells the reader to be angry. I don't mean to bring your original post into disrepute (indeed it's commendable that you, unlike the article, made it immediately clear that this was not one £2 million overpayment)

I don't think overpayments are even a minor cause of the welfare crisis. I would put that down to the job losses during the recession which reduced tax revenue and increased benefit expenditure. Regardless of what the sun thinks the DWP would get their money back whether by seizing assets in case of fraud or repayments (strangely the Sun does not suggest that anyone would contact the DWP to explain the situation and pay it back without spending a penny which I believe most would do :roll

Essentially the DWP spokesman is correct, causing undue hardship does nobody any good and Parliament (Westminster not Brussels) set the minimum amount to live on which is the rate of JSA.


For what it's worth, just to prove beyond doubt the sun isn't worth the ink it uses:

£2m benefits overpaid to just ten claimants*

TEN people have been overpaid a total of nearly £2million in benefits, it was revealed yesterday.

The claimants' debts are so huge, it is unlikely all the money will ever be repaid.

One person who got £240,000 too much is paying back just £9.90 a month - meaning it will take 465 years to clear the debt.

The biggest overpayment to a single person was £262,000.

It is being clawed back at a rate of £35 a week from the claimant's current state handouts - which will take 142 years.

Another £182,000 is not being repaid at all because the person who received it is in prison. One claimant no longer on benefits is paying off a £145,000 debt at a rate of just £20 a week.

Incredibly, another two people also not on benefits are paying back nothing towards debts of £144,000 and £134,000.

The Department for Work and Pensions said efforts were being made to set up payment plans.

An estimated £3.3billion of benefits is wrongly paid out every year due to fraud and errors. The ten biggest debtors have been overpaid £1.7million. The shock DWP figures follow a Sun Freedom of Information request.

A spokesman for the DWP said: "Rates of recovery are set to avoid undue hardship."

But Matthew Elliott, of The TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "This is just more evidence that the benefits system is in freefall."

DO you know any of the ten who received vast overpayments? Call The Sun on 020 7782 4100.

Italics = poor form for any news outlet
Bold = opinion.

* This font size is far too large

 

[LE Greys]

It would be a lot easier, of course, if they made tax avoidance impossible by introducing a proper flat tax and replacing all tax credits with direct payments, ideally while abolishing as many taxes as possible. That would provide huge savings in administration as well. The idea is that someone would be able to do their tax return on the back of an envelope and the only way the could reduce the ammount of tax they pay would be to reduce their income. I'm not entirely clear as to whether the payments were through benefits (which I would retain, but simplify) or tax credits (which I would abolish, but replace with increased benefits, tax cuts or by increasing the threshold).

 

[strange6]

My problem is with the way that the article is written, it is incredibly condescending, judgmental, has far too much opinion in it and tells the reader to be angry. I don't mean to bring your original post into disrepute (indeed it's commendable that you, unlike the article, made it immediately clear that this was not one £2 million overpayment)

You make your points very well and I can see where you're coming from now. In these 10 cases it would seem to be the fault of the DWP for the cock-ups in question, in which case it would be entirely wrong to assume these 10 cases are in some way connected with fraudulent activity. And on reading the article again, I do agree that the tone and structure of the writing does seem to have some sort of hidden agenda within it. Tha's a very intelligent young man, SS4!

 

[90019]

Interesting the lack of any mention of over how long these overpayments were actually made.

Interesting, but not surprising.