alex  
uk press is going to be exaggerating benefits "increases" today (UC standard rate is going up £7 weekly). important to note that the LCWRA component of UC for new claimants is being *halved* (from around £400 a month down to around £200 a month). the press will not bother to comment on this.
9:52amWeb
Show threadalex  12h ago
in the press' ongoing anti-disability campaign (paid for by a government PR campaign), there's stories launching today about "1 in 20 having a blue badge now". disabled people are around 1/4 or 1/5 of the uk population (this includes elderly disabled people). so this stat indicates around 1/4-1/5 disabled (and/or elderly) people have a blue badge so that they (or the person driving them) can park a bit closer to the supermarket. hardly a scandal.
Show threadalex  11h ago
the government's claim of "perverse incentives" (to apply for LCWRA) also doesn't make sense, because you don't apply for LCWRA. you apply for UC, they assess you then *they* decide which group you go into (LCWRA, LCW, or neither).
Show threadMoon joy10h ago
@alex Thank you for providing important context on this.
Show threadNini10h ago
@alex And you are assessed at every single point with scrutiny that you'd wish they'd put half the effort into for finding tax evaders.
Show threadNini11h ago

@alex As with all this shit it says less about the recipients and more about the people who make these systems and what they'd do in that situation. They're filtering for these things because of how they'd use the system and how they'd exploit it.

Does it matter if the fraud rates are low? Nope, just keep kicking those at the bottom because someone will have to be a scammer and that's worth putting every applicant through all this shit just to get that handful of scammers.