David Cameron’s plans to pay private companies to snoop on benefit claimants have been criticised by East London-based charity Community Links:

Government’s latest wearily predictable spate of bullying the most vulnerable in society for cheap political gain – or ‘cracking down on benefit fraud’ as they prefer to call it – is as tiresome and damaging as ever.

As many have already pointed out, the £5.2bn figure being bandied around is for fraud and error, with error (£3.7bn) far outweighing fraud (£1.5bn). Cameron would claim he has said that all along, but his spin has been enough to deceive the Telegraph, who this morning were claiming that “Mr Cameron discloses that £5.2billion of the £87billion welfare budget is lost to fraudulent claims for tax credit and welfare, while administrative error wastes £1.6billion.”

Secondly, the latest figures I have (for 2006/7) show that 6,756 were successfully prosecuted, a further 12,000 were cautioned, 10,000 received an administrative penalty, 95,000 had their benefit changed but weren’t deemed to have done anything serious enough to warrant any kind of sanction, leaving an enormous 196,000 people who experienced a hugely stressful investigation and were found to have done nothing wrong.

We regularly talk to terrified people who are about to be hauled in front of a Jobcentre advisor and quizzed about their claim. Their only source of income is at risk – that five minute interview could mean the difference between scraping by and being plunge into destitution. And they might only be there because a neighbour has fallen out with them and phoned the benefit fraud hotline, or they had a bit of paint on their hands at their last interview. These advisors, don’t forget, are the same people who are supposed to be supporting people into work.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   Government criticised for "bullying the vulnerable" http://bit.ly/aoo2oO

2. Don Paskini

   RT @libcon: Government criticised for "bullying the vulnerable" http://bit.ly/aoo2oO

3. Elly M

   RT @libcon: Government criticised for "bullying the vulnerable" http://bit.ly/aoo2oO

4. Tiffany Stecker

   RT @libcon Government criticised for "bullying the vulnerable" http://bit.ly/aoo2oO

5. Don Paskini

   @Comm_Links have crossposted your blog to liberal conspiracy http://bit.ly/aoo2oO

6. Claire Butler

   RT @libcon Government criticised for "bullying the vulnerable" http://bit.ly/aoo2oO

7. LazarouMonkeyTerror

   RT @libcon Government criticised for “bullying the vulnerable” http://bit.ly/9nyGSV (shower of millionaire bastards!)

8. Mark Best

   RT @libcon: Government criticised for "bullying the vulnerable" http://bit.ly/aoo2oO

9. Chris Preston

   It will certainly make a difference to the vast majority of those investigated, who are found to have done nothing wrong: http://is.gd/ebvlQ

10. Swamp Thang

    RT @libcon: Government criticised for "bullying the vulnerable" http://bit.ly/aoo2oO

11. David O'Keefe

    RT @libcon: Government criticised for "bullying the vulnerable" http://bit.ly/aoo2oO

12. Pamela Heywood

    Government is “bullying the vulnerable” http://twurl.nl/h2pra0

13. ambir

    RT @libcon Government criticised for “bullying the vulnerable” http://bit.ly/9nyGSV