Comments on: LC briefing: Lie detectors – where your money is going

By: ace

ace — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:02:04 +0000

Once again an excellent post.
Interestingly after reading the first article you posted on this I asked a few friends who work in HB (Housing Benefit) at the local LA about it. They said they were currently going through training for it. I asked them what they thought about it and they said it was ‘just’ going to be used to limit the need for additional paperwork to assess claims. So rather than ask someone to come down and prove their ID (‘Validation’ in HB speak) they would simply call the claimant and ask them over the phone. Once the system shows that person is being truthful then there is no need for further proof.
For them it means that they can speed up the assessment of the claims and help the LA to hit further central government targets.
They said no one in the department knew anything about how good/bad the system was, it was just a case of ‘here’s a new tool that will make your lives easier as far as assessing is concerned’. For their managers this will be a good tool as they have been told that the system works very well.
The funny thing is, once you have done the job for a while, as I have done in the past, you intuatively know if someone is pulling a fast one. Yet because Fraud Sections are in the main self funded, they want dead certs as opposed to ones where you have a ‘feeling’ – even one that is borne about through years of experience. So guess what – now they have a new ‘tool’ that will give them a dead cert!

By: Shatterface

Shatterface — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:38:38 +0000

Wouldn’t it be great if there was some kind of daily printed medium for this kind of thing?

By: the a&e charge nurse

the a&e charge nurse — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:34:40 +0000

Seconded, Shatterface – I think they used to call this sort of stuff investigative jounalism ?

By: Shatterface

Shatterface — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:22:07 +0000

I don’t know if Liberal Conspiracy hand out awards at the end of the year, but if so I expect a teary speech from Unity thanking all those who made this award possible and wishing great grandmama could be here to see it, as this series has been the best this site has published since I started reading it.

Great stuff.

By: Will Rhodes

Will Rhodes — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:49:52 +0000

So, a question – an obvious one I think.

The government are willing to spend billions to save millions?

What are the raw figures of spending to saving ratio?

By: the a&e charge nurse

the a&e charge nurse — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:41:13 +0000

Polygraphs, identity cards, super-computers – money no object implementing these madcap scheme’s.

Where will at all end ?

By: Purnell’s Lie Detector - Following the Money | Ministry of Truth

Purnell’s Lie Detector - Following the Money | Ministry of Truth — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:01:44 +0000

[...] This is an expanded version of an article published at Liberal Conspiracy. [...]

By: Bendy Girl

Bendy Girl — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:24:08 +0000

I’ve not had time to read this series of DWP related articles yet but thank you so much for investigating the area. Last week Jobcentre plus sent out letters to all benefit claimants explaining that the day benefits are issued is to change. It was supposed to explain what to do as this affects bills etc (like shifting from a weekly pay packet to a monthly for example) but didn’t really.
These kind of letters are sent to all claimants regularly, the most recent example of waste being the letters sent to claimants to tell them they would receive their ‘extra’ £60 before the end of March. Most letters arrived a couple of days after the additional payment went into bank accounts, as do the ones about the £10 xmas bonus. I’d be interested to see the costs of this kind of mass mailshot and what if any the benefits are.
BG

By: Liberal Conspiracy

Liberal Conspiracy — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:58:37 +0000

New post: LC briefing: Lie detectors - where your money is going http://tinyurl.com/c8evfq

[Original tweet]