By Maeve McGoldrick
“Some risk-taking good for young” according to leading entrepreneur, Simon Woodroffe in today’s Metro. He highlights the necessity of ‘a go for it’ attitude in a cotton wool culture that discourages children from being innovative and taking measured risks.
Entrepreneurship is a highly regarded skill in today’s society, Sir Alan Sugar has achieved celebrity status as thousands across the UK idolise his success as a self-made man.
Yet in the same paper, a response to yesterday’s article about benefit cheat Dawn Shackleton echoed the TV programme On the Fiddle, shown last night on BBC 1. Clearly public sentiment is intolerant when readers state that it made their “blood boil to see confessed benefit fraudsters smiling”. It is clear that public sentiment associates benefit fraud with greed and immoral behaviour.
Sentiment such as this is understandable when the media so successfully manipulates the rationale behind benefit fraudsters. What should be making blood boil is not people cheating the system, but how the media combines two completely different categories, those who act out of need and those how act out of greed.
Unfortunately ‘On the Fiddle’ completely missed an excellent opportunity to correct this misinterpretation. Reporting on three different benefit fraud cases, with a resemblance to “The Bill” whereby the audience applauded when investigators outsmarted ‘cheats’ at their own game. A scaffolder, a doorman and a kitchen worker were all claiming incapacity benefit and illustrated the poverty traps of debt, sickness and earnings disregard that push people into the informal economy. A single mum of three who had missed out on her sons disability allowance of £44.67 per week for the past seven years because she did not read the small print on one of many forms highlighted the complexity of the benefits system. And a couple who had been cheating the system since 1994 and owned three large properties worth £350 million each were portrayed in the same negative light as the above cases.
There was a glimmer of hope when one investigator acknowledged that
“Usually it’s the greedy, not the needy that know their way around the benefits system and get as much as possible.”
Nevertheless the end message given out to the viewers was captured by the Crime Squad’s message to the people
“In the end we will find them and get the money back.”
At one point the Compliance team read out a suspect’s rights
“If we find out you are working more than 16 hours this statement will be used as evidence and you will be prosecuted.”
I found this shocking and ironic to hear, having spent the day at the DWP Annual Conference where the focus was on getting people into work, removing the barriers to employment and personalising the services to cater for individual need.
Inspired and motivated by the conference, the DWP appears to be moving in the direction the Informal Economy Campaign wants to direct it. There was talk of a joined-up strategy between departments with the DWP and HMRC working together and sharing information. Groundbreaking In and Out of Work pilots to improve ground level delivery and create more incentives for short time work connected Housing Benefit and Tax Credits. Benefit paydays and payments are to be simplified and the Job Centre Plus will gain personalised experience from local organisations. It seemed clearly understood that this was a cultural change for both the public and in particular for the different departments, therefore trust and understanding was essential.
Given the opportunity to ask questions in an open forum, and picking up from the JCP Board Director Matthew Nicholas’ comment on data sharing between the JCP and the DWP, I questioned Mike Hanson, the Commissioner and Director General of HMRC about fraud and error. He acknowledged that shared data was the way forward but replacing IT systems was an expensive process and in terms of harnessing the skills of informal workers to meet employment targets he said little.
I ended the day with a casual conversation with a lady about the newspaper article, we both questioned the psychology behind the benefit cheats grin in the photo; was it to do with the fact that she got away with it for so long or her incredible ability as an entrepreneur?
[...] On the Fiddle- The riddle of Fraud. | [...]