Crippen Cartoons cartoons at the cutting edge of disability

Our friend in the Black Isles Alex Tiffin, editor of the Universal Credit Sufferers site has written an impressive article which reveals the true story behind the question of benefit fraud.

Alex writes:

“Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Department for work and Pensions (DWP) released their estimates of benefit fraud and payments made in error for the 2016/17 financial year.

The figures on benefit fraud AND their errors are somewhat smaller than we are usually led to believe.

HMRC said the total level of error and fraud favouring the claimant was £1.32bn which although this sounds high it is in-fact just 4.9% of the total tax credits bill.”

But more is lost because of HMRC/DWP incompetence than fraud.

Alex continues …

“Look at the figures in detail and they debunk the benefit scrounger claim even more.

• Errors favouring the claimant was £1.05bn; 3.9% of the total tax credits bill.
• Fraud favouring the claimant was £280m; 1% of the total tax credits bill.

So, fraud accounts for just 1% of money paid in error. £1.05bn is the HMRC’s own fault!”

Like the HMRC, the DWP also makes estimates fraud and error payments.

Its most recent estimate shows that overpayments to claimants in the 2017/18 financial year were £3.8bn which is 2.1% of the total bill. Break it down like the HMRC figures and it’s a similar story.

• 1.2% (£2.1bn) of this claimant fraud.
• 0.9% (£1.7bn) was their own fault!

“It’s utter hypocrisy that they label benefit claimants as cheats when they can’t keep their own shop in order” said Alex.

But hang on to your hats. Tax avoidance dwarfs all of this …

HMRC estimated the amount of tax avoided, evaded, or unpaid by people and companies in the 2015/16 financial year was £34  billion although, the Tax Justice Network and PCS estimate put this very much higher at around £120 billion.

Even at the HMRC’S lowest estimate, more was lost in tax in one year, than lost by the HMRC & DWP to benefit fraud and errors in five years.

Alex concludes his article:

“This is absolutely ridiculous and just underpins the message that the rich get off with anything. Small businesses and individual taxpayers face huge penalties whilst huge companies can settle for pennies in the pound.

The whole reason I sent my original tweet about my life on Universal Credit, was because I was sick of seeing people stating that all benefit claimants are playing the system.

These figures just confirm that is not the case even remotely. I doubt that they will attempt a tax law overhaul but, it’s figures like those I’ve written about above that highlight that Tory Britain is hostile towards anyone who isn’t in the money.”

Alex @RespectIsVital

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

An Asian wheelchair user and a young white male wheelchair user are placed alongside a huge chart on the wall which depicts benefits fraud versus tax evasion. The chart shows a graph climbing to 120 billion pounds, which corresponds to the column depicting tax avoided, evaded, and uncollected which is estimated by the Tax Justice Network and the PCS Union as being 120 billion pounds. Another column shows the government’s own calculation as being thirty billion pounds. Two other columns which barely register show estimated benefit fraud and benefit errors. Benefit errors are higher than the fraud column. The Asian man is saying: “So that’s the benefits fraud myth shot down in flames!”. The other young man is saying, whilst indicating the government’s own column with a black pointer: ”And even their own figures show £30 billion still owed in taxes!”