to be a little WTF about benefit cheat adverts.....

[posieparker]

It's just the bloody people look like they could do with a little extra in their pocket. I think the government should have some sort of warning like:

Whilst we accept most of our revenue is lost from corporate tax and other loopholes, the 3% represented by benefit cheats are where you will find our resources.

(please feel free to get the right statistics, I just went to sleep with that advert spinning in my mind)

is where, not are where.....doh!

I'd rather they saved money by not going to war with other countires rather than tackling the tiny minority of benefit cheats.

S'pose you don't mind muggers or burglars either then? Theft is theft - just because its from taxation which can seem invisible doesn't make it any less a crime. So YABU. If people didn't steal from the state maybe there would be more money for the armed forces,schools, hospitals, pensioners etc.

I think its fair enough to try and prevent benefit fraud.

Theft is theft,absolutely and I think theives should be sought out and treated as such

But the adverts do have a tendency tomake people suspicious of those that can't help their sit etc, which makes them a double edged sword and that's sad.

Imean, who wants to be watched by the general public in case they are fraudsters? But sometimes it can feellike that is what the ads imply IYKWIM.

(BTW normally i'd bait for a bit but will outline now that I am a carer as cant be doing with bickering today, bad night0.

Benifit cheats are breaking the law, and the law is the law and all that. However, i know of people who have taken on temp work (a week or two or a few days) and not declared it as it causes all sorts of problems with getting benefits reinstated. This, i feel, almost forces people into defrauding. There needs to be something in place that allows someone to take on a few weeks work (and obviously not receive benefits for that time) and be able to go straight back onto benefit without having to wait ages to get money again.

There are cheats all over the place - tax fraudsters, expenses fraudsters and benefit fraudsters.

I have known of people who are genuine benefit fraudsters and its out of order, but i certainly dont begrudge a single mother a bit of extra cash for a cash in hand cleaning job.

i think its all a bit pot calling kettle black after the recent benefits/expenses hullaballoo from the mps....

Not really - the actions of a Gov't department seeking to ensure that thieves are punished is a Gov't Dept doing it's job. The actions of thieves and liars (from whichever part of society) should be punished - repay double what you have stolen and undertake some form of community work or prison sentence to aid rehabilitation and re-educate you about morals and ethics.

I don't mind a hard up single mother doing cleaning cash in hand, but I do mind the family living in our village who boast about how they cheat the system, who are both declared disabled and have claimed disability cars, even though both regularly take part in iron man/women challenges and marathons around the country, and both work for cash in hand.
I also hate the way they belittle us "workers" saying we too should cheat the system so we can have holidays and fantastic Christmases. They have 3 holidays a year, and not just a camping trip, or a weekend at the seaside, they have a month in Florida every year, 3 weeks in the sun, and last year went on a 10 day skiing trip.
They have been shopped in several times by their neighbours, but nothing has been done - they've lived the life of riley for at least 7 years

So how can the government justify encouraging the rest of us to shop in the mothers trying to scrape in a little bit of extra cash, when there are obviously shitheads like these people "earning" thousands a year and nothing is done?

Am I bitter? Course I bloody am, wouldn't you be?

I want to know where they find the actors to take part in them. "Right, love, you're perfect for the 'fat ugly slapper with pulled-back- hair' look we want for this dole cheat character." Or "Yes, mate, you've got the scrawny, shifty look we're after."

£80m a year lost in benefit fraud. we're all paying for that. I could do with some extra money but don't commit fraud.

op are you a jurno? where are you?

Is who a jurno?

Okay so £18.5 billion is lost through tax evasion and £2 billion through benefit fraud.... where are the 3000 designated tax evasion officers? Where is the advertising to stop Mr and Mrs Medium size company evading tax?

I had a school run to do and then floors to wash. I was responding to colditz post to see if MN was still a good place to debate!

Surely tax offices have tax evasion officers

don't see what's wrong with trying to stop people committing fraud

UD me too!

Actors won't care. They're earning some money so that they don't have to claim benefits

They do have tax evasion officers, but Government has recruited 3000 extra for benefit fraud. It's just a people pleaser ifyam, people on the bread line like to make sure other people are not having an easier life than them. Resources would be better spent ensuring company owners are paying their wives £50k to sit at home pretentding to be a company secretary.

There is something a little distasteful about the bash-the-poor overtones of such adverts. As someone else said, some of the benefit 'fraud' that goes on is confusion and desperation: it might be a better idea to put stricter rules in place to prevent companies from misleading people about when/what they are going to get paid, given that quite a lot of companies 'employ' staff but don't guarantee them any work, so you will be working two days this week, none the week after and maybe three the week after that... if you tell the benefits office, they stop your benefits and take 5-6 weeks to 'reassess' which means that when the employer decides that there isn't any work for you this week you're a bit stufed...

Gosh UD have you not seen what they can do in make-up!

I would like to see an advert that says

Do you realsie that every pound you spend in a certian supermarket - 90p out of that pound gets sifted aways into a forigne account to aviod paying tax on it

Or that farmer that went bust, he did so due to a certian chain os supermarkets putting the squeeze on his prices so you could eat cheaply - pay a proper price for your food or you will eventually pay much more for crap food...

I agree with OP. There's a massive difference between someone living below the poverty line doing cash in hand work out of desperation and some greedy arsehole with a fat wagepacket squeezing the system. A MASSIVE difference. Having lived in genuine poverty I'd never report someone for trying to get a bit more out of life. I think those who haven't raised children on benefits who report are disgusting TBH. Unless they are real pisstakers. Which isn't that common. Oh, and income support doesn't give extra money for Christmas either

"Resources would be better spent ensuring company owners are paying their wives £50k to sit at home pretentding to be a company secretary." 50K??? Ahhh, thats where im going wrong then - i pretend to be the secretary, THATS what i should be charging - lol. We do claim some money for me, but i do actually do stuff and its all legit and fair enough in my opinion as i do "earn" the money. However, i know of people who pay their wives to be partners in their veterinary practices - gawd knows how they have time when they are doctors who have their own practices, and guess what they pay their hubbies to do - annoying thing is, tis all legal!

Ivy, i agree in sentiment - however, DP and I are "hard up" at the moment and simply cannot afford to pay a proper price to local compaines, as much as we would love to. We have recently gone veggie because we cannot afford free range meat, but i certainly cant afford to go down to the farmers market or to the lovely man at the greengrocers because they charge too much money in order to try and make a living because the supermarkets have taken all their customers - its a catch 22.

SGB we applied for HB in May, still to get an answer. 5-6 weeks would be good!.

Seaglass- report them then, becuase they must have committed a lot of rraud to get DLA- you need all manner of documents, we can't even get a blue badge (same system as a mobiolity car) for our genuinely SN boys. people shouldn't complain though if they won't report