Two out of three benefit cheats get away scot-free

BENEFIT cheats in Scotland have conned the taxpayer out of at least £41 million over the past three years - but only a third have been prosecuted.

The figures were uncovered after the Department of Work and Pensions was forced to launch almost 50,000 separate fraud investigations, leading officials to discover that an average of almost 14m is being wrongly handed out to claimants each year.

Experts fear that this could represent only a small fraction of those cheating the system.

Those who do get caught are unlikely to appear before the courts, with less than half referred for prosecution.

Robert Oxley, campaign manager for the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Benefit fraud affects both taxpayers and those claiming benefits alike.

"Taxpayers will worry that if the government is overpaying benefits by so much, what else are they missing?

"The public needs to be convinced that benefit fraud will be caught and punished if they are to have faith in the welfare system."

The figures, accessed under freedom of information legislation, show that 49,106 Scottish cases were opened by the DWP in the period since 2008-9 following allegations of benefit fraud. This highlighted 41,064,442 lost to illegal claimants over the period - but officials said they were unable to provide details of how much of the cash had been recovered, insisting this would be too costly.

Of the 9679 individuals detected in connection with wrongly claiming money via schemes such as child tax credits, unemployment and incapacity benefits, just 3,325 - or 34 per cent - had their cases brought to the attention of the courts.

And just under 18 per cent, or 1,763 individuals, received an administrative penalty.

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: "The last Labour government was content to do anything it could to massage the numbers to make them look good rather than do what was right for each individual and for the taxpayer.

"That is why our new UK government is right to reform the system to make it fit for purpose and to uncover the true extent of who claims what and why."

Dr Eilidh Whiteford, work and pensions spokeswoman for the SNP, said: "This is a Westminster responsibility, and it's high time the UK government sorted it out."

A spokeswoman from the DWP confirmed that, UK wide, benefit thieves could be costing the taxpayer up to 1 billion - but insisted the department was doing everything it could to stop people accessing money illegally.

She said: "We will continue to tackle this problem at the frontline but also at the root by reforming the benefits system to make it less open to abuse."