Disability benefit: £16m overpaid to claimants

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Lieing, theiving bankers can keep billions in bonuses, companies are not chased to pay any tax avoided through loopholes but god forbid people entitled to benefits should hold on to extra money paid out in error.

About £16m has been wrongly paid to people on disability living allowance and attendance allowance, the Department of Work and Pensions has said.
The DWP says 1,600 people have been overpaid by £20.55 to £131.50 a week.
The mistake has been uncovered by a DWP Accounting Service audit.
Minister for Disabled People Maria Miller says she will "consider carefully" how to recover the overpayments.
But she added that "in a small number of cases" the money may not be reclaimed.
It is the second time overpayments have been found in these benefits and the DWP says it is "extremely disappointing" the problem was not solved when it was first discovered in 2007.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

You're right of course; shit like this I couldn't care less about because £16m is nothing compared to the billions we don't make from capital gains tax/corporate tax etc in order to keep the rich happy. If people who cheat on their benefits to get a couple hundred quid should be maligned, people who cheat on their taxes to get millions should be arrested.

[Blake's Baby]

This isn't even 'people who cheat their benefits'. This is people who've been overpaid a few tens of pounds for some weeks, due to DWP error.

This happened to me some years ago. A new system of payments for families with children was introduced and for some months they paid me the new allowance (from the Tax Office) and the old allowance (from the DWP). I didn't know I wasn't supposed to get both. Then the DWP said 'oh we've been overpaying you for 18 months, you owe us 3 grand' or something, even though they admitted we'd filled all the forms correctly and provided them with the proper info. In theory they could still ask for it back.

And at the same time of course tax-dodging firms like Vodaphone get away with billions.

And at the same time it's been claimed the Benefits Agency is operating at a 'profit' because more people don't claim benefit they're entitled to, than claim fraudulently or in error.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Most benefits overpayments are due to DWP error, not fraud (http://m.ippr.org/articles/56/720/most-benefits-overpayment-is-not-caused-by-fraud).

Which makes today's attack on beneift claimants by the Daily Express (http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/332520/Spongers-can-sue-to-claim-benefits) a disgusting act of incitement.

[Blake's Baby]

...

Which makes the Daily Express (http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/332520/Spongers-can-sue-to-claim-benefits) a disgusting act of incitement.

Edited that for you, partly just for the lulz but because, you know, the Daily Express... it's just the Daily Mail on heavy tranq.

[brigadista]

the REAL news is the number of people entitled and being DEPRIVED of their Disability benefits by ATOS - and DLA is being abolished later on -

Same thing happens with housing benefit - anyone with threats from Housing Benefit that they have defrauded and will be prosecuted when it was an overpayment should challenge that decision.

What happens is many people cave in and plead guilty becausee they are scared.

then the DWP prosecutes and publishes details stating that they are clamping down on benefit fraud when the people being prosecuted are vulnerable and scared .

With the legal aid cuts there will be more as welfare benefits and debt help is being cut from legal aid -

DESPICABLE :cursing: