David Cameron defends firms' role in benefit fraud crackdown

Published on Tuesday 10 August 2010 14:44

PRIME Minister David Cameron has defended his decision to bring in private contractors to clamp down on benefit fraud.

• David Cameron says goodbye to Tyler Rushworth, 12, at a centre in Greater Manchester Picture: PA

Mr Cameron said an "uncompromising" crackdown on benefit cheats would be unveiled in the autumn and credit rating agencies could be recruited to help to identify false claims.

Tougher penalties, more prosecutions, measures to encourage others to shop cheats and greater efforts to recover "stolen" payments would also be included.

With some 5.2 billion lost a year to fraudulent or wrongly paid benefit claims, the Prime Minister insisted the government was entitled to use all the means at its disposal to get taxpayers' money back.

The government believes 1.5bn a year is lost in fraudulent claims, the equivalent cost of 40,000 nurses.

But Labour critics accused him of using the issue as a smokescreen for the wider effects of his government's programme of cuts, while a leading think-tank suggested that ministers would get more back by trying to tackle overpayments.

Visiting a centre in Greater Manchester that specialises in getting people off welfare and into work, Mr Cameron said the country needed to regain the sense that claiming benefits you were not entitled to was "morally wrong".

He said reducing the 5.2bn would be the "first and deepest" cut in public spending and credit rating agencies could be recruited to identify false claims.

Mr Cameron said: "There are some people who are claiming welfare who are not entitled to it, and that is just wrong and that should stop. As a country, as we start to make savings to get our budget deficit under control, the first cut we ought to make is the welfare payments to people who are not entitled to it."

On the involvement of third-party assistance, he said: "I do not think people should be concerned. Private companies use all sorts of different means to make sure they are not defrauded; why should the state be different?"

But Labour MP Margaret Curran MP, who sits on the work and pensions select committee and represents Glasgow East, one of the highest areas for benefits claimed in the UK, argued that her party in government had already halved benefit fraud.

She added: "David Cameron must not attempt to use this as a smokescreen for the fact that his callous coalition cuts will increase the number of people who are unemployed and dependent on benefits - at a cost to the taxpayer that will dwarf these fraud savings."

Max Wind-Cowie, of the think-tank Demos, said the government should focus more on preventing mistakes in payments than in correcting errors.