Welfare benefits versus tax cheats.

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook the other day.

It says "Public Finance Warning. Tax cheats stole your benefits. Tax cheats cost the UK £95 billion a year". 

It is not an image I would share on my own Facebook. I don't believe people are automatically entitled to benefits, so 'stole your benefits' doesn't strike the right chord with me. This image is clearly aimed at benefit claimants. It needs to be aimed at people who do not claim benefits. People who think that benefit claimants (benefit cheats in particular) are causing the UK's money wells to run dry.

I do not know whether it is an accurate statistic. I do know that in 2010 it was estimated that tax cheats were costing the UK £70 billion a year. It's a scary figure.

The total cost of welfare benefits in the UK last year (2011) was £121 billion. Yes, that is a staggering amount. I find it astounding that the amount tax cheats cost the country is close behind though. Just imagine if we had that money back. There would be no more need to target the benefits system with such vehemence.

The total cost of welfare benefits in the UK in 2010 was £188 billion. A lot more than the following year. The cost of sickness and disability benefits however, was only £26 billion. You can see the vast chasm that is the difference between sickness and disability benefits, and the money lost to tax cheats.

The cost from tax cheats looks to be nearly three times that of the cost of sickness and disability benefits alone. The cost from actual sickness and disability benefit fraud will be minuscule in comparison.

So why is the government not doing anything about tax cheats? Why chase those who already have no money instead, when they could win back much much more money so easily?

Britain’s great benefits divide: The boroughs that claim most - and least - revealed

A Survey Of The UK Benefit System

Tax cheats cost you £1,150 a year

500,000 to lose DLA

Those of us who have been watching the tide turn are well aware of what switching from DLA to PIP will do. Benefit reform has been brought about partly because the government has painted a picture of those on benefits as being scroungers, malingerers, people who generally don't want to make an honest living ... the lowest of the low.

Public perception is that the benefits system is being reformed because of benefit fraud. Yet, the actual statistic for Disability Living Allowance fraud most recently released was 0.5%. Old Joe Blogs is going to look at the governments statement that 500,000 will lose DLA, and believe that 500,000 people have been claiming fraudulently. As such, I'd like to do a little maths with you.

DLA fraud = 0.5%

In Joe Blogs mind, 0.5% = 500,000

In order for that to be the case, the total number of people claiming DLA would be 100,000,000.

So, dear Mr Blogs, before you jump to any conclusions, please think about the reality of more people than make up the population of the UK being able to claim DLA. The government is not just targeting benefit fraud, it is targeting people who are genuinely sick and disabled, and taking away the little amount of money they rely on.

DLA is supposed to enable people to live a life contributing to society, whether that be by working, or simply by being able to shop in their local stores instead of online. By removing so many people from DLA (or PIP) the system will crumble. People who have relied on Mobility cars will no longer be able to get to work. People who were able to go into their local high street throughout the day will no longer be able to do so ... more shops will close!

It's a small minded way of recovering a tiny amount of money, that could be so easily regained if the big mouths, further up the ladder, actually paid their taxes.

Rod Liddle's hateful article, and my reply.

My New Year's resolution for 2012 was to become disabled.

Nothing too serious, maybe just a bit of a bad back or one of those newly invented illnesses which make you a bit peaky for decades - fibromyalgia or M.E.

There's lots of money to be made from being disabled - your money - taxpayers' money, as it happens.

And it is far easier to be disabled these days than was ever the case.

Also, I am nothing if not a creature of fashion, a cool and with-it hipster, daddy-o who is always up to date with the latest trends.

And being disabled is incredibly fashionable. The number of people who claim to be disabled has double in the past ten years.

And who can blame them? Not only do you get money from the Government and don't have to go to work - but if you play your cards right you might get one of those badges which lets you park wherever you want. Right in front of the cashpoint for example. And you can use those enormous toilets with levers and handgrips and emergency buzzers they have in all public places, without feeling too guilty about it.

The latest figures regarding incapacity allowance came out this week. It is now estimated that 80 per cent of people who are claiming sickness benefit are actually fit to work. What's more, almost a million people have been on Invalidity Benefit for more than a decade.

When you suggest that this is a public scandal, the disabled charities get very cross and accuse you of victimising the infirm.

But I'm not. I'm victimising the people who are pretending to be infirm in order to claim money from the state.

Or at least I'm trying to. I don't suppose it will have much effect. Just water off their supposedly bad backs.

Then the Left-wingers will say - hang on a minute, you fat old fascist, more money is lost to the country as a result of tax avoidance by the very rich than is wasted through sickness benefits.

Well, maybe it is. And the Government should deal with that with a bit more vigour than they do right now.

But it still doesn't make fraudulently claiming sickness benefit OK, does it?

That's like saying we shouldn't get worked up about crime such as rape because murder is far worse.

It's a silly argument.

More than anything, though, the people fraudulently claiming sickness benefit are doing a disservice to those who really deserve it. The people who are truly disabled or ill. It has become easier to claim these benefits, partly as a consequence of the disablement charities who, out of their own self-interest, insist that an ever-greater proportion of the population is disabled.

I think we should all pretend to be disabled for a month or so, claim benefits and hope this persuades the authorities to sort out the mess.

Dear Rod Liddle,

Do, please, pretend to be disabled for a month or so. In particular, try and pretend you have M.E. or Fibromylagia. First of all you have to convince a doctor that you have such a condition. Your month is already gone. In fact, you've lost at least six months, in many people's cases it takes years before they actually know what it is that is wrong with them, crippling them with pain, leaving them in bed in a dark room, staring into nothingness every day because doing anything else is unbearable.

Assuming for the sake of argument that you miraculously get your diagnosis within that month, you then have the joy of applying for benefits. The first week you can claim statutory sick pay from work. Your doctor will then start signing you off work with 'fit notes'. Again, your month is gone, but again, for the sake of argument ... The fit notes come to the attention of the DWP, as they are paying your sick pay. They don't particularly like paying sick pay, so they send you out the ESA50. It's a form in which you explain exactly what is wrong with you, in minute humiliating detail. I think describing my bowel movements was probably my least favourite.

The ESA50 takes the DWP at least two months to process, if you're lucky. So AGAIN, you have lost your month. Extremely few people are accepted as being truly ill from the ESA50 alone, even if they have accompanying medical notes and letters from their GP and specialists. They are sent for a medical assessment with Atos Healthcare. Atos, unfortunately, are infamous for fabricating evidence, and having their assessments turned over on appeal. The medical assessments are extremely stressful. In most cases people become more ill because of the stress caused by this whole process, making them far less likely to be able to work any time soon; a catch 22 situation if you will. The usual result of this whole process is that each individual is placed in the 'Work Group ESA'. Very few make it through to the Support Group. Some are put back on Job Seekers Allowance. And for most, once they reach the Work Group, it is recognised by their support worker that they are indeed not fit for work, and told that there are no jobs available for anyone anyway, let alone the sick or disabled. For those put in the Work Group and Support Group, the whole process starts over again in three months time.

Are you actually aware of how much money people on sickness benefit are able to claim? Please follow me with the figures here. I was 22 when I became ill. I was earning £15,000pa, starting out in a marketing career. I would be earning £30,000+ by now. If I was claiming ESA at the moment I would be receiving approximately £90 a week on ESA. That amounts to £4680pa. Very very few people are also able to claim Disability Living Allowance. The middle rate DLA, for sake of argument, is approximately £50 per week. That is another £2600pa. The total per year is just over £7000. Please explain to me why people like myself, on a flourishing career path would choose to pretend to be ill, with a pay cut in my case of £7000 at the very least?

I would like to point out that I have both M.E. and FM, and do not receive any benefits. So therefore I would ask of you, why would I pretend to have these invented illnesses? Simply for the blue badge? I can promise you that I do not pretend to be in pain nearly constantly. I do not pretend that I frequently cannot stand up. I do not pretend to be constantly nauseous, or have headaches. I do not lie in a quiet, dark room for most of the day because I want to make people believe I am ill.

In regards to benefit fraud, are you aware that ESA and DLA fraud are actually the lowest forms of benefit fraud? The Invalidity Benefit and Incapacity Allowance to which you refer, do not even exist. Has it actually occurred to you that if disability statistics are rising, that it may actually be because the population is rising too? Given the inaccuracy of the rest of your article though, I am hesitant to believe that fact simply from your say so.

So yes, I would absolutely love to watch you be disabled for a month. I would like for you to be in pain, be unable to sit up for more than twenty minutes, let alone stand up, unable to cope with bright light or fluctuating sound, to constantly feel too sick to eat, to react to foods today that you did not react to yesterday .. you get the picture. I would also like to see you put away every single one of your mod cons, freeze your bank account, and actually try to live on the £67 a week you would receive as statutory sick pay for that month, paying for your rent / mortgage, all your bills, and your food on it.

Kind regards,

Not a fan.



[I am aware that my facts are not entirely correct regarding statutory sick pay. At the time of writing brain fog was attacking me and I couldn't make head nor tail of the governments website. The first weeks statutory sick pay is actually based on ones own salary. Given that this fella works for one of the top newspapers I am guessing that his sick pay would be higher than most of us can imagine. As such I am sticking with the £67 per week figure, as basic ESA, JSA, and assessment allowance are all this amount. So yes, I would like to see him survive on that.]

GPs to no longer sign people off sick

This is a long article (click title to view), and I have a lot to say about it, so I'll just give you a few snippets below. I like my snippets recently don't I!

People should be signed off for long-term sickness by an independent assessment service and not GPs, a government-backed review says.

The review also calls for a new government backed job-brokering service, to find work for people cannot stay in their current job because of their condition.

If the recommendations are accepted people who are signed off sick would also be put on to Job Seekers' Allowance, instead of Employment Support Allowance, for a period of three months.

"What the GPs say is they don't have time to do an in-depth functional assessment and nor have they had any training in occupational health so we think it's providing a new unique service that both employers and GPs need."

And welfare reform minister Lord Freud said: "We just don't get adequate help for people early enough when they need it and what we are creating in there is an incubator for lifelong idleness for far too many people."

He (Dr Richard Vautrey) said: "If what is being described is a proper health, occupational health assessment at an earlier stage in the patient's illness then that would be helpful.

"But if it turns out to be a punitive process just to try and save money without the best interests of the patient at the heart of the process then it will fail."

So, just to summarise for you, in case it is not clear from the above; the latest government proposal is to stop peoples personal doctors being able to sign them off long term sick from work, and to put the responsibility on a new body, which as yet does not exist. This body would consist of occupational therapists, who no doubt will give you a twenty minute assessment which does not give them any true insight into your condition at all, just like the Atos assessments. It would not in fact surprise me if they employed Atos to do it.

Why on earth are they making a fuss about 300,000 people being off work sick? That's a drop in the ocean compared to the unemployment figures. Perhaps if they focused on creating jobs, bringing markets back to this country, and preventing JSA fraud the country would be in a lot less dire straits; and they could stop picking on the sick and disabled!!

Seriously, the population of the United Kingdom is approximately 60 million. 300,000 being ill long term is less than 0.5%. I would say that was almost a miracle in itself.

Where do they think all of these jobs for the sick and disabled are going to come from? If they cannot employ the nearly 1.5 million who are claiming JSA, how do they think they will find jobs for people whose health is unreliable.

I may have been ill for ten years, but I've seen how all of this works; if you're ill at work, you get penalised. You lose out on bonus's and those with poor sickness records are the first to be made redundant. Why would employers take on someone who is uncertain when they'll be in work, or how much they can do, someone completely unpredictable, when there is a healthy person equally qualified that they can employ?

The most ridiculous thing about this is that our GPs know us the best. It did not say as such in this article, but the news item on the television last night apparently said that many GPs feel pressured to sign patients off long term sick when they should not. This, I can understand to a certain extent, as when you are familiar with someone it is human nature to not wish to do them any harm. There in lies the error though; if your GP cares about you they would not sign you off as long term sick, taking you out of the work place, and earning better money, if it were not necessary.

I know for a fact that my own GP feels a lot more pressure from the government to have me returned to work, than he does from myself to sign me off sick.

Well, as one of my friends says, this may simply be an exercise in keeping the public happy again. Show the public that the government is doing what they want, then actually do nothing about it. I hope he is right, as these measures would lead to even further suicides.

National Union of Journalists Speaks Out

The National Union of Journalists today released a statement asking journalists to stop calling disabled people scroungers. You can click the title of my blog post to see the whole article, but there are also some snippets below.

I personally find it interesting that it states the rate of Incapacity Benefit fraud to be 0.3%, and the rate of Disability Living Allowance fraud is 0.5%. 0.3% being the lowest benefit fraud statistic. Given the demonisation I've personally felt from people I have met and people I know, it is evident that the press coverage of benefit fraud has indeed lead the public to believe otherwise.

"Over the last few months we have seen a continuous drip-feed of stories which have promoted a range of inaccurate and generalised accusations against disabled people with long term health conditions. As a result disabled people have faced greater hostility from the public, with many claiming that they have experienced hostility, discrimination and even physical attacks from strangers.

"The Work and Pensions Select Committee on Incapacity Benefit have themselves criticised the Government for the language it uses when it releases and comments on official statistics on the incapacity benefit reassessment programme resulting in some media using terms such as "scrounger" and "work shy". 

"Rather than offering constructive support to disabled people, certain stories and features have portrayed disabled people as unsustainable, unproductive and even not disabled at all, but profiting from fraudulent benefit claims"

I've not personally experienced violence, but hostility I have. In fact, one of the reasons I left a dating site earlier this year was the number of people who had a go at me when they discovered that I am incapacitated. The most hurtful incident was Easter Sunday (long time ago now). Having spent Easter very sadly alone I went to the Chinese take away to get something to eat. A new person working there asked me if I had just finished work. I said that I had not. He then asked me what I do. I explained that I do not work at present. I didn't even say I was ill or claiming benefits, but received a mouthful from him asking whether I just intend to live off benefits for the rest of my life. He then had to answer the phone, otherwise I'd have given him a mouthful back and asked for a refund. 

I agree with the NUJ. The media is deliberately stirring up hatred against the disabled and incapacitated. I cannot begin to imagine why. There is a lot of benefit fraud happening. People claim Job Seekers Allowance with no intention of actually working again. Everyone I know who claiming sickness or disability benefits, would much rather be healthy and working. 

One of my friends summed it up beautiful recently. He has Cystic Fibrosis. He is on high rate mobility, and therefore has help with costs towards a car. Someone expressed to him that they were envious. His response was that he would gladly exchange them the car for their healthy lungs.