New Labour fail with £10bn benefit scandal

DAVID Blunkett admitted the benefits system was “crackers” yesterday as it emerged £10billion was lost to fraud and blunders in three years.

Mr Blunkett said there were FOUR TIMES more people claiming incapacity benefit than were on the old invalidity handout 25 years ago.

Yet health has got better, and medical science has boosted treatment, and technology has changed the nature of work.

Mr Blunkett said the “paradox” was that old heavy industry, where people were physically worn out and left on the scrapheap, had been largely replaced by hi-tech jobs.

A damning report showed fiddlers and bungling staff cost taxpayers £3billion a year. In the past 12 months, an estimated £2billion was pocketed by cheats while another £1billion was paid out by mistake.

Yesterday Mr Blunkett said: “We’ve had sticking plaster on sticking plaster and it’s a minefield.

“The system is crackers”

The full scale of benefit fraud and error was exposed in a report by the Commons public accounts committee.

It showed that of £9billion overpaid only £550million is recovered. About 2,600 staff work in debt recovery, costing 23p for every £1 recouped.

A check on 800 incapacity benefit claimants found 106 had no supporting papers.

Tory MP Edward Leigh, who chairs the committee, said: “Fraud and error will never be brought under control unless benefits systems are simplified.”

from DAVID WOODING The Sun Whitehall Editor