The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #63553   Message #3501578
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
10-Apr-13 - 04:44 PM
Thread Name: BS: Benefits/Welfare.
Subject: RE: BS: Benefits/Welfare.
The official figures included in that demonstrate that the level of fraud is proportionately pretty small. The "cautious adjustments" suggested which are claimed to indicate they are significantly larger appear to be picked out of the air - notably "25%" of disability payment claims" are asserted to be fraudulent. "National Fraud Initiative" sounds like a pretty accurate term for people makinb up figures in that way.

And of course there is no attempt to balance these against the claims which don't get made because people are ignorant or ashamed, or the cases where claims are turned down wrongly.

As for tax fiddles - legal loopholes are only there because the laws are written that way. Artificial schemes which are clearly only there to save tax are tolerated - the onus for proving they are justifiable for other reasons ought to lie with the people using such schemes, not the other way round. And any attempt to set up such schemes should be prosecuted and penalised as a criminal conspiracy.