Steven HeywoodWhen we're told that government spending in benefits is ballooning we're not told that part of the reason why is that the DWP pays private companies millions of pounds a year to check to see if people's legs have grown back.
Richard Michael Blaber@Stevenheywood It isn't true that #UK #Government #spending on #benefits is "ballooning". That is a totally false #narrative, not only put out by #Labour, #Tory & #ReformUK #politicians, but the #rightwing #media. For the #truth, see: https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/new-official-figures-disprove-claims-that-social-security-spending-is-spiralling-out-of-control/.
New official figures disprove claims that social security spending is ‘spiralling out of control’
New official figures published alongside this week’s spring statement have again disproved claims that spending on “welfare” is “spiralling out of control”. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OB…
@rmblaber1956
I said we're told the cost is ballooning. And we are, all the time. Of course, like you say, the cost of the benefits people receive isn't.
As Disability News says, the spending on actual benefits looks to be fairly static allowing for inflation, which is a bit worrying when one begins to wonder how the debilitating effects of Long COVID have impacted.
The component cost that *is* spiralling out of control is the administrative cost of the system; each additional suite of hurdles adds a significant additional rolling on-cost to the bill, disproportionately so in the cases of reassessment and appeal. But then they're not intended to save the taxpayer so much as a penny, they're there to minimise the number of people who get the support they need. Sadly, there's never an expenditure cap on performative cruelty for the purposes of political theatre
@Stevenheywood Take a/c of the money, time, effort & fuss made over benefit fraud, & compare that with the same over tax fraud - yet the amount of benefit fraud as a percentage of the total benefit budget is miniscule in comparison to that of tax fraud to tax revenue. (See: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/205235/55billion-lost-to-tax-evasion-could-be-significant-underestimate-pac-report-warns/.)
@rmblaber1956
It's deliberate: Westminster politicians are considerably more at risk of being found guilty of evading tax than overclaiming benefits.
It's deliberate: Westminster politicians are considerably more at risk of being found guilty of evading tax than overclaiming benefits.