Prominent stories of benefit fraud live long in the memory.
Keith McNiffe was spotted by officials of the Department for Work and Pensions refereeing football matches in 2008, when he said he could not walk. Liverpudlian Stephen Worton was filmed riding an elephant in India in 2007, on holiday from running his own roofing business, all the while claiming a number of benefits.
Now 67-year-old former teacher Allan Baldwin faces a suspended jail sentence after being filmed Morris dancing despite claiming £28,000 in disability benefits over five years.
The very outrageous nature of such deceptions can provoke humour as well as anger. But anger is the more correct response.
The Coalition Government's assault on the credibility of benefit claimants has been harsh and effective. An impression of widespread fraud has enabled punitive policies and great damage has been inflicted on our social safety net. Yet the vast majority of those claiming benefits are genuine, and in need of support. Any of us could find ourselves in that position.
When a former public servant exploits the public purse in such a way, it undermines the system for all.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article