Ian Duncan Smith left red-faced as crackdown on welfare fraud fails

Universal Credit is supposed to simplify the system but instead wastes more taxpayers’ money.

Getting retaliation in early is a well-worn tactic in politics.

The Coalition Government is launching a new campaign targeting benefit fraud this weekend.

Last week the Department for Work and Pensions published its list of the most outrageous attempts to claim handouts.

It’s no coincidence that just around the corner is a new set of figures on the level of benefit fraud that’s not expected to make comfortable reading for Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.

The statistics are predicted to show scroungers, chancers and bumbling civil servants cost the country an extra £100 million last year.

That’s bad for IDS because he’s yet to implement a flagship policy designed to stop scammers. The crooked countdown of the 10 worst benefit fraudsters in the land provided some festive froth during a quiet time for news.

The list included a clairvoyant who failed to foresee she’d be convicted of fraud despite claiming benefits and owning two homes, a man who said he could barely walk yet mimed and danced as a drag queen, and a topless model who claimed to be a single mum but who was caught out when investigators found she’d posted wedding photos on Facebook.

But these cases obscure the fact that the government’s own figures predict a rise in the amount incorrectly paid out by the department due to fraud and error when the figures for 2012/13 are published next week.

The amount overpaid is expected to creep up from £3.4 billion to £3.5 billion.

As a fraction of the overall welfare budget this isn’t much just over 2%. But it adds up to an extra £100m of taxpayers’ cash wasted.

And it’s embarrassing for Iain Duncan Smith. He promised to crack down on scroungers and is overseeing the ongoing debacle surrounding his pet policy of Universal Credit, which is meant to simplify social security but will waste £140 million of public money according to the Public Accounts Committee of MPs.

Labour’s shadow minister for welfare reform, Chris Bryant, said: “It’s staggering. When families are facing a cost of living crisis that means they have to watch every penny, the government is so slapdash that the cost of welfare fraud is actually going up.

“It’s time they got their act together and stopped preaching to everyone else when they don’t have their own backyard in order.”

IDS has promised action. He said: “I am determined to root out benefit fraud and punish the unscrupulous minority who are responsible for carrying it out. In the New Year we will introduce a number of new initiatives to strengthen our arm in the fight against fraud.”

Trouble is, the facts don’t exactly back him up.

Central to the war on fraud is the establishment of a Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS). This would see investigators from the DWP team up with counterparts from local councils, the tax man and even the police to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.

The current complicated system means someone falsely claiming housing benefit must be investigated by their local authority, but if the same person is drawing the dole fraudulently then it’s up to the DWP to catch them.

That makes life difficult for prosecutors who see the vast majority of crooks escape jail in favour of fines and suspended sentences.

If they could bring a raft of charges against the same felon simultaneously it would likely lead to harsher sentences that may deter others.

Despite announcing the creation of a SFIS a number of times it’s yet to happen. Pilots are under way but the DWP admit they can’t say when it will be set up properly.

The SNP’s welfare spokeswoman at Westminster, Eilidh Whiteford, said: “The coalition’s incompetence on welfare is well documented. Their complete administrative failure on Universal Credit has put claimants in the miserable position of not knowing what is happening and now their long promised plans to weed out real benefit fraud are on hold yet again.

“There is never a proper explanation or apology from the DWP as to what on earth is going on just more dither and delay, hitting people in real need most.”

IDS has been successful in making necessary cuts to the benefits bill.

But he’ll need to get a grip on waste and fraud if plans to trim entitlement further are to be seen as fair.