An "uncompromising" crackdown on benefit cheats will be unveiled in the autumn, "Call Me Dave" Cameron pledged today. The Prime Minister said reducing the £5.2 billion* annual cost of fraud and error would be the "first and deepest" cut in public spending?"Welfare and tax credit fraud and error costs the taxpayer £5.2 billion a year. That's the cost of more than 200 secondary schools or over 150,000 nurses. It's absolutely outrageous and we can not stand for it."
Well, this is all very outrageous, but for all the wrong reasons. How much more outrageous is the fact that £95 to £120 billion a year is lost to the country in avoided and defrauded tax revenue, nearly all of that from the top percentile of earners and corporations. That is 20 times the the very worst estimate of benefit and tax credit fraud. Thats the cost of more than 3 million nurses and 4000 secondary schools. Perhaps 'Call Me Dave' has his priorities wrong? We wonder why?
*Interestingly, fraud and error was estimated at the maximum as being around £700 million just a few months ago. Now, either benefit cheats have found 800% more ways under this Condem government to cheat the system, or something is very wrong, yet again, with 'Call Me Daves' figures.
