"Am I alone in thinking that I would, a million times over, rather be in a society that paid a few people who were not entitled, than risked leaving innocent people with no way of surviving?"
Fine if you've got a very large pot of money or are happy to place the burden on an ever decreasing number of people who pay real net taxes. But we haven't/can't, and every fraudulent or even "doubtful" claimant takes away from somebody who might need the money far far more than them.
My Aunt has cerebral palsy caused by a hospital mistake when she was born in the 1940s. She can't walk unaided, use her hands, talk properly, and is doubly incontinent. She gets a pittance from the state. She's never been able to walk in the park, paddle on the beach, have sex, wipe her bottom, or do a million and one other things that we take for granted, and can do without thinking about it even if we are depressed or have a bad back.
Whilst there are many many people with severe and debilitating mental illness, who fully deserve support just as much as those with physical disabilities, there is also a frightening culture or entitlement to disability-related benefits that is almost impossible to challenge, and many many people that I've met in my daily life that I'd like to kick on my Aunt's behalf. It is far too easy to make a technically non-fraudulent, but still dubious claim, and the government is doing exactly the right thing by tightening up.