Oxfordshire, Ed Miliband and new civil penalties

This entry was posted on Friday, September 16th, 2011 at 5:38 pm

More than £310,000 in fraudulent benefit claims has been recovered by two Oxfordshire councils, BBC News reports. Benefit fraud investigators working for the South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils found that 87 people were making fraudulent claims.

Of these, in the financial year 2010-11, 15 people were prosecuted, 57 were cautioned and a further 15 were fined. Over £160,000 worth of fraud was found by benefit fraud investigators at South Oxfordshire District council, while £150,000-worth was uncovered by Vale of White Horse District council. The money will be paid back through individual payment schemes.

Ed Miliband has vowed to stop Labour being seen as “the party of those ripping off our society”, reports the Guardian. The Labour leader has called for greater social responsibility from high-earning private sector executives and welfare claimants, so that the hard-working majority no longer feel cheated.

Miliband admitted “people who act responsibly – people who do their duty are getting angry and I understand why” and defended Labour’s position as a party founded by hard-working people for hard-working people.

Civil penalties will be introduced for people who negligently give incorrect information on their benefit claims, or don’t tell the Department for Work and Pensions quickly about a change in their circumstances, Directgov has announced.

In the period between April 2010 and March 2011, £1.3 billion was lost through customer error and £1.2 billion was lost to fraud. The new penalty is designed to “encourage people to be more responsible in keeping their claims correct”.