Benefit Cheats

[setmefree]

Should all benefit cheats who are caught be named and shamed in their local newspaper...
I say yes, why should us the taxpayer foot the bill,any one else care to comment???

[bottomburp]

I think it is morally wrong (as well as wrong in law) to claim for things you aren't entitled to.

But whether a cheat should be named and shamed rather depends on whose authority the cheat is named. For example it shouldn't be up to the neighbour to name and shame.

So my answer is yes and no.

[setmefree]

I meant named and shamed by their local authority,should av added that bit

[dave]

Well, if Northern Rock can claim 24 billion in benefits and have to be shamed publically then......

[bottomburp]

But why should tax payers pay to get an institution such as Northern Rock out of trouble? If it had been allowed to go down the loosers would have been the shareholders - that's what happens when a public company goes bust! But because this was a bank and the investors were mainly insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds (ie big City names who made big noises) HMG decided to intervene. And now HMG is caught between a rock and a hard place as the shareholders will refuse to let it be sold for a price that reduces the value of their shareholding and if it's allowed to go bust now HMG will have lost in excess of £24billion of tax payers' money.

Ditto the missing CDs fiasco. You're a victim of identity fraud and you sue HMRC under the Data Protection Act. The tax payer will have to pay. Your bank account is emptied. Why should the banks (for once I am on their side) have to pay for this when the reason the fraudsters got the information was the loss of the CDs. So who will reimburse you? The tax payer.

The whole thing is set up so the tax payer ends up having to pay to sort out messes caused by other's incompetence.

[JonCris]

No one should be 'named & shamed'. Being punished by the courts should be enough. However as it's the same as putting people in the stocks so we fortunately did away with that cruel & unusual punishment years ago.

Of course there are out there many of the hang & flog 'em brigade who speaking from their high moral ground don't much care for their fellow citizens.

As Dave intimates if Northern Rock can take £900 (& rising) from everyone in this country without our consent & without any hope of recovering it (much like the Rover debacle) then I think it's a petty & vindictive suggestion to expose these ordinary people to further ridicule after they have been dealt with by the courts.

[bottomburp]

The local newspapers report on other criminal cases; I don't see why a benefits cheat deserves more privacy than, say, a drug dealer or a shoplifter.

[setmefree]

Originally Posted by JonCris

No one should be 'named & shamed'. Being punished by the courts should be enough.(But surely if they never frauded the system in the first place they wouldn't end up in court) However as it's the same as putting people in the stocks so we fortunately did away with that cruel & unusual punishment years ago.

Of course there are out there many of the hang & flog 'em brigade who speaking from their high moral ground don't much care for their fellow citizens.(And there are many benefit fraudsters who couldn't give a toss about the working class,whils't they are sat in the pub spending our tax money)

As Dave intimates if Northern Rock can take £900 (& rising) from everyone in this country without our consent & without any hope of recovering it (much like the Rover debacle) then I think it's a petty & vindictive suggestion to expose these ordinary people to further ridicule after they have been dealt with by the courts.

An average of £800 million benefit fraud is committed every year,this could be spent on our hospitals etc etc.

[kia]

then theres the people who do deserve benefits who dont get em cos there too honest and honesty is definatley not the best policy seems like the cheats get it all on a plate i claim DLA but only get it on the help needed side of it didnt get the mobilty side cos i can walk to my gate how does that work out cos when my illness is bad i do struggle but if i put that do i get seen as a cheat cos theres times when i cant do it xxkia

[JonCris]

Originally Posted by bottomburp

The local newspapers report on other criminal cases; I don't see why a benefits cheat deserves more privacy than, say, a drug dealer or a shoplifter.

Because they aren't 'drug dealers' or 'shoplifters'

[dave]

As could 24 billion quid.

The courts deal with people who break the rules.

Naming and shaming used to work here in my village - smugglers that were caught were hung, and left hanging for weeks to show what would happen.

I don't think, as a modern society that naming and shaming is the way.

I think most benefit cheats do so because they are up against the wall.

Personally, if I had to live on 40 quid a week or whatever it is, I would probably do something about it somehow, but then, I'm clever and honest , and maybe they are not so...

[louis wu]

No one should be 'named & shamed'. Being punished by the courts should be enough. However as it's the same as putting people in the stocks so we fortunately did away with that cruel & unusual punishment years ago.

Of course there are out there many of the hang & flog 'em brigade who speaking from their high moral ground don't much care for their fellow citizens.

When their fellow citizens are robbing and cheating their way through life, then I think we are entitled to get annoyed. Personally speaking, if the courts are not strong enough, or able enough to hand out sentences that actually fit the crime, then yes, name and shame them. Whilst were at it, bring back the stocks as well.

[dave]

...and drug dealers and shoplifters don't get publically shamed either, do they?

[setmefree]

Originally Posted by JonCris

Because they aren't 'drug dealers' or 'shoplifters'

A shoplifter is a thief,a benefit cheat is a thief i can't see the difference apart from a shoplifter could be in court for stealing let's say an item worth £50.00,A benefit thief could be in court for an average of £3,000

[JonCris]

Originally Posted by setmefree

An average of £800 million benefit fraud is committed every year,this could be spent on our hospitals etc etc.

Giving the hospitals another! £800 million Now that would be a criminal waste of money particularly as the Health Service is in credit.

Who says there is £800 million in benefit fraud?

That figures from the department of Statistical Guesswork. It's a figure dreamt up by Whitehall (& the Sun) so they can claim the need to cut benefits. Anyway if those figures are to be believed unclaimed benefits by far & away exceed any fraud paid out in benefits.

[JonCris]