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Or is just another BBC way to turn the attention from serious matter (UK looming bankrupcy and Government impotence) or is something real about these potential robbers?
£63 Million is a whole lot of money.
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I am the first one to be suspicious about ´scrounger´ stories that governments (of both political parties) have put out during the years. That said, given the experience in Ireland, there may actually be something in it.
By all accounts once they reimposed the need for people to collect their benefits at their local post office, rather than paying it into their bank accounts, some 10% of the claimants dropped off the system.
How many of those were living as expats is open to debate but there may well be something in it.
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unfortunately yes.
wrote about it on my blog a while back.
here was some informaiton I found
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/2008/sep/hse-105-250908.asp -
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I was apalled to learn of two families who live on our development who were (until recently) living in Spain and claiming benefits.
They re visited UK around every 6 months for interviews about their claims. They apparently used relatives’ addresses for residence/postal purposes. I understand that one family has now gone back to UK and one, has had benefits withdrawn on being “found out”.Having dealt with many cases of benefit fraud at one stage of my career – I am not surprised that this is happening and suspect it may be happening in places other than the Costas.
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@OliverB wrote:
I was apalled to learn of two families who live on our development who were (until recently) living in Spain and claiming benefits.
They re visited UK around every 6 months for interviews about their claims. They apparently used relatives’ addresses for residence/postal purposes. I understand that one family has now gone back to UK and one, has had benefits withdrawn on being “found out”.Having dealt with many cases of benefit fraud at one stage of my career – I am not surprised that this is happening and suspect it may be happening in places other than the Costas.
If they were on Job Seekers Allowance then they would need to attend fortnightly job search interviews so having to visit the UK every 6 months suggests that they are on incapacity benefit. It would be rather wasteful to expect such people to return to the UK every couple of weeks, six months sounds reasonable. It saves the expense of the flights and the cost of the interviewer simply to confirm that a long term ailment is still long term.
You must also be aware of the malicious intent of some who point fingers at other people. As few expats in Spain like to boast of their wealth (imagine what their Spanish friends would think) this leaves them open to gossip that I have heard some people enjoy, whether accurate or not.
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Mike wrote:
If they were on Job Seekers Allowance then they would need to attend fortnightly job search interviews so having to visit the UK every 6 months suggests that they are on incapacity benefit. It would be rather wasteful to expect such people to return to the UK every couple of weeks, six months sounds reasonable. It saves the expense of the flights and the cost of the interviewer simply to confirm that a long term ailment is still long term.
Whilst I abhor people who cheat the benefit system,I agree with this viewpoint Mike. Many people who have ailments, especially things like arthritis, choose to live in warmer climates as it helps their condition.
You must also be aware of the malicious intent of some who point fingers at other people.
Also true, so the “hotline” the UK government are setting up to expose fraudsters will possibly be open to abuse.
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@Claire wrote:
Also true, so the “hotline” the UK government are setting up to expose fraudsters will possibly be open to abuse.
I can’t see how it can do any harm to anyone who is genuine. The only downside I can imagine is such a person discovering that one is not a social security thief and wanting to be one’s friend.
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This “£63 million” could be instantly generated by closing the tax loophole that allows someone like Phillip Green (boss of BHS) not to pay tax because his wife “lives in Monacco”., ie has an address there where she spends more than half the year.
The Government don’t seem to be doing much about this much more significant manipulation of the system.
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How on earth the DWP will cope if people actually ring this number and report people is beyond me…they seem completely incapable of doing what jobs they are mean to at the moment!
When we moved here, I informed child tax credits that we were moving abroad and was incorrectly told that we could continue to receive CTC…eventually they wrote saying we should not have received anything and demanded more money than they had paid us back so I was told to dispute this…and 2 years later I am still waiting for a response from them!
Every time I ring I get told they will escalate the case and someone will ring back in 15 days…which has yet to happen, they must live in a time warp!!
So even when you try to do whats right, it often seems that what you say is ignored or you are given the wrong advise, good preparation for moving to Spain where civil servants are specially trained in telling you a different thing every time you speak to them!!!
Sorry..in cynical mood today, it must be the rain!
😥
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The reasons stated by heatherpsk, is one of the reasons that I say good luck to them if they can get away with it. After all the so called the mother of all Parliaments members are getting away with it.
For, a so called civilised society to turn a citizen against another citizen to save a few pounds per week, while billions are wasted shows at what level the society has reached.
The amount of £64million that is claimed to have been involved means that there are a lot of people. Where will we lock them up, Guantanamo ?????
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