UK government to tackle benefit cheats
The UK government believes that in excess of £5 billion a year is milked from the UK benefit system by fraud and benefit cheats. As a consequence, the UK government is set to introduce credit rating agencies and private surveillance companies to monitor potential fraud in the system. When you consider the amount of money at stake there are few who can really complain at the UK government's attempt to shake up a benefits system which is wide open to massive fraud allegations. But will the new system actually work?
There are claims that so-called "bounty hunters" will be awarded a percentage of any fraudulent activity which they uncover although the exact nature and exact terms of any agreement are yet to be ironed out. However, it was also revealed that even those who are found to have "milked the system" are very rarely taken to court and are very rarely the subject of criminal investigations. You could argue that there are few barriers in the way of those looking to defraud the benefits system if it looks as though they will escape any criminal prosecution and potentially prison under the current system?
A potential saving of up to £5 billion a year would go a long way to helping redress some of the public-sector budget deficit.
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