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Benefits system in dire need of shake up

John Fitzsimons
by Lovemoney Staff John Fitzsimons on 25 June 2009  |  Comments 4 comments

As figures show that more than £10bn in benefits go unclaimed, the time is right to sort out the benefits system.

Few subjects divide people like the benefits system. Barely a week goes by without a story appearing in newspapers like the Daily Mail, bemoaning 'benefit scroungers' who take our taxes and sit idly by, enjoying life's luxuries while the rest of us work our fingers to the bone.

It's an easy (and grossly inaccurate) cliché, and succeeds only in attaching a stigma to those that rely on the benefits system.

This week, the Government has revealed up to £10.5bn of income-related benefits were unclaimed in 2007/8. That's a simply massive amount. £10.5bn! That's almost a quarter of all of the benefits money set aside.

It's even more staggering when you look at the breakdown by each area. With Pensions Credit, between £1.9m and £2.9m was unclaimed. That equates to up to 1.71 million pensioners missing out on money that is theirs by right.

On Council Tax Benefit, 30% of the money went unclaimed. That equates to between 2.33 million and 3.06 million people in the UK.

Things are a bit better with Housing Benefit, Income Support and Jobseekers Allowance, but in each of these areas there are still hundreds of thousands of people missing out on money that can help them make ends meet. (Check out the full report on the Department of Work and Pensions website)

For so much money to go unclaimed suggests to me that the current system is failing some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Part of the reason that so much money goes unclaimed, particularly by the elderly, is that it is so very complicated, with reams of forms to fill in. This is madness.

Obviously, the system needs to be firm against potential abuse. But the benefits system is there to help the people that need it the most, not make them jump through hoops in order to get a little assistance.

Thankfully elderly charities, including Help the Aged, are running an awareness campaign encouraging pensioners to establish just what they are entitled to. It would probably be too much to ask for similar campaigns to raise awareness of who is entitled to the other income-related benefits available.

What is needed is a proper shake up of the benefits system, so that those that need the money most can get access to it, without ploughing through forms the length of War and Peace. And that shake up needs to happen soon.

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Comments (4)

  • Mike10613
    Love rating 600
    Mike10613 said

    The only cheats and scroungers are the MP's fiddling their expenses. They won't be hounded or prosecuted! The main people to lose out are the chronically sick who are denied disability living allowance every day by adjudicating officers at the DWP who know little about the law; especially the Disability Discrimination Act and Human Rights Act 1998. They are told what to do by some faceless Whitehall commitee of cowards and expenses cheats. The tribunal system is a shambles and people only occasionally get justice by taking their case to parliamentary Commissioners which is too much for most chronically sick people. The Welfare rights advisors and CAB probably do their best to help; but with a corrupt system they can't help very much. Gordon Brown and his cronies should listen because the old and sick vote and will do so in the next general election.

    Report on 29 June 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • LastChip
    Love rating 92
    LastChip said

    Rarely do I agree so wholeheartedly with an article, but this is one occasion.

    However, abuse is out there alive and well.

    Day after day, I see people that to all intents and purposes appear to be as fit as a fiddle getting on buses with disabled passes and claiming free travel (just as an example).

    How many times have you seen a (so called) disabled driver having no regard to other road users when parking and subsequently sprinting across the road to the local shop?

    They all shout hard about their rights, but what about the rights of ordinary people?

    I admit, I'm not qualified to determine whether these people are "disabled" or not, but all the time there is a perception of abuse being condoned, the welfare state will take a bashing.

    Report on 29 June 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Klawman
    Love rating 17
    Klawman said

     

    Not only is the system ridiculously complicated (I believe that the Tax and Benefits Handbook runs to about 3,000 pages!!), to the extent that no-one fully understands it, there is a knee-jerk reaction to deny all claims out-of- hand.

    Some of the most needy and vulnerable, particulary pensioners, unfortunately DO take "no" for an answer.

    When my father was in his 90's and was eventually persuaded to claim Attendance Allowance, his application was immediately rejected, despite him fulfilling all the criteria.  I struggled long and hard, and had to enlist the help of his GP, before he was finally awarded the benefit. How many miss out on their righful benefits because they have no-one to champion their cause?

    Report on 30 June 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Barbie
    Love rating 0
    Barbie said

    In order to successfully claim benefits you have to get help or apply through an organisation. My aunt when blind and very sick was refused Attendance Allowance, eventually it was granted the week she died, but she applied as an independent person, though obviously with help filling in the forms. When my mother was terminally ill with cancer the hospice applied for all the benefits for her and everything came through much more quickly. No wonder most pensioners don't get what they are entitled to.

    As for the Benefits Office - the gates of hell. But there are many people abusing disabled parking badges - I think they get them for disabled relatives and then use them themselves. There is a woman in a Porsche in East Street, Brighton who uses one all the time.

    Report on 11 July 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 loves

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