NI’s £33m benefit fraud figure ‘unacceptable’

Northern Ireland’s tax payers are being cheated out of £33 million through benefit fraud, the Government claimed today.

Social Development Minister John Spellar described the figure as “totally unacceptable” as he helped launch the "Benefit fraud - it's a real rip off" campaign which aims to drive home the message that benefit fraud is not a harmless fiddle but a “totally intolerable drain on much needed public resources”.

"People here are quite literally being ripped off,” the Minister said. “Fraudsters are creaming off around £30 million a year and this is money that might otherwise be used towards schools, hospitals, roads and other services that are so badly needed here.

"This campaign highlights the fact that we do and will actively pursue anyone setting out to fraudulently claim benefits. This shouldn't be tolerated by society in general, and it certainly won't be tolerated by us."

The current estimate of fraud across all benefits includes £9.2 million of Income Support, £6.3 million of Jobseekers Allowance, and £6.9 million in Housing Benefit with Incapacity Benefit, Carers Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Retirement Pension and Pension Credit accounting for the remainder.

Figures show that for the period from April 2004 to January 2005 the Agency's Operational Intelligence Unit carried out almost 8,000 investigations into benefit fraud with 3,566 cases successful and overpayments of £8.65 million raised.

(MB/KMcA)