And Statistics
According to the article here, Benefit fraud and errors hit £3.1Bn last year. Which seems like a lot of money to your average person on the street.
Of course, it then qualifies that only £1Bn of that was fraud. Still, seems like a lot, doesn't it? You could do quit a lot with £1Bn. At least, I could.
But then you can see how much the government spends on benefit in the UK and see that that's less than 1% of benefit spending.
The question being - how much effort do you want to spend to get fraud down below 0.5%?
What's an acceptable level of fraud, considering that (nearly) every method that's used to cut down on fraud makes life harder for legitimate claimants?
I wonder how much is being spent on fraud prevention, and how much it saves.
(If I've got my numbers wrong somewhere then please correct me.)
Of course, it then qualifies that only £1Bn of that was fraud. Still, seems like a lot, doesn't it? You could do quit a lot with £1Bn. At least, I could.
But then you can see how much the government spends on benefit in the UK and see that that's less than 1% of benefit spending.
The question being - how much effort do you want to spend to get fraud down below 0.5%?
What's an acceptable level of fraud, considering that (nearly) every method that's used to cut down on fraud makes life harder for legitimate claimants?
I wonder how much is being spent on fraud prevention, and how much it saves.
(If I've got my numbers wrong somewhere then please correct me.)