Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-n...wales-15626365

Words fail me..How come genuine claimants get turned down for benefits while such as these two get whatever they ask for?:mad:

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Yes l agree as l know several people who are claiming money when they should not get it at all and there are several who l know up the hospital with extremely serious conditions who got turned down including one who lives in my city.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Because they know how to play the system like most of those that are not entitled to receive benefits but are stealing as much as they can while they can. These are the type that have forced the Government's hand and have made them take action at last, Unfortunately it also makes its harder for the genuine claimants :mad:

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

In the last two years I have become less and less able to walk and do general tasks due to having inflammatory arthritis in my ankles, knees, hips, elbows and hands. I applied for DLA last year and was turned down, mostly down to a letter from a doctor who I have NEVER seen saying I could walk. Today at 11.30 I have my appeal, wish me luck.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Part of the problem is government departments do not make enough checks on peoples entitlements as the article pointed out.

The second is if people are caught they seem to get suspended jail sentences and by crying poverty are able to pay it back at a £1 a week for years,what king of message does that send out?,if these two are guilty i wonder if the courts will cease their house to pay the government ie taxpayer back,somehow i doubt it sadly.:(

---------- Post added at 08:36 ---------- Previous post was at 08:35 ----------

You sound genuine good luck today,sadly many genuine cases are refused whilst those that can manipulate the system hoover up.:(

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

And there is my point :tu:, They know how to play the system better than those whole need it the most. I know that there are people out there that will train you to pass the tests to be able to claim anything, They tell you how to walk, talk, fain breathing problems and then how to fill out the forms. All for a fee of course. But when you are able to get these payments on top of your normal wage it pays to go to these people.

Plus i feel the problem is bigger than the Government depts are admitting.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Good luck indeed - let us know how you get on. :tu:

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Thank you, will do.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

I shall be thinking of you. I hope it goes well this time and just feel so frustrated that genuine people such as yourself have been put in this position.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Thank you, the thing that surprised me is that they have seemed to make a decision on a doctors report who has never ever seen me. I have ankle straps, wrist straps, elbow straps, special gloves to stop my hands swelling and have to use crutches to walk small distances, anything longer than that and I have to use either a wheelchair or a mobility scooter.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

:clap::clap::clap: Spot on,although i do think a bigger problem is when they are found out the courts impose such laughable sentances as to almost encourage the fraud that is taking place.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

The mind boggles at the stupidity of this weeding exercise. In theory it should have worked but the way it has been implemented is ridiculous and I don't know how the people in control of the evidence gathering can live with themselves as they must know how deeply flawed the procedures are.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

From the original report.

:dozey:

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Indeed why i am not surprised.:mad:

I have a freind who genuinely claims this credit but its pretty much as described he picks up the phone to confirm his situation is the same.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Good luck.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Spot on sickens me to death these people. While these play system genuine will suffer histeria and hate. I saw a carer with someone just sorting things in supermarket car park. That carer got hell lot abuse even spat at told get proper job etc. We was talking afterwards its not the first time the hatred coming out people toward disabled/carers getting crazy.

The vile terrible atitude stirred by labour then coalisiton stinks. They created this bubble that all claiments are spongers worthless media hypebol. People are very thoughtless never engage brain follow sheep of persecution. I think it should be classed hate crime but police wont do anything.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

I am in this situation and it is indeed exactly as described. I should add, I am trying to get out of the situation of working hard and earning little, but setting up businesses in the midst of this recession was never going to be an instant fortune-maker.

I was very surprised how easy it is. If any benefit is based on fulfilment of certain conditions (such as, in this case, hours worked), surely checks should be getting made to ensure the conditions are met. But I have never been subject to any checks.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

I guess part of it will come down to cost vs savings. If it costs more to check properly than you'd save by just paying then why bother. Then you have the appeals so even if you do stop paying, what are the costs if the claimant then appeals?

The system is in need of a good seeing to so that those in need get enough and those who aren't in need don't get anything. And those caught cheating get severely punished.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Good luck to you.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Well I got there just to be told that my appeal was being adjurned due to the lack of evidence from the DLA, waste of bleeding time. Why could they not have phoned me and let me know. The only thing they have said that I have now to wait for another date, I waited over a year for this date.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

l cannot believe you have waited a year for your now postponed date and it just sums up a whole system in that it is total unorganised chaos.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

denphone has said it all. What an utter shambles. I would personally get in touch with my MP at this stage as such an unprofessional fiasco needs an MP Inquiry landing on the desk of the Manager of the office dealing with your benefit claim.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

fully blame tories reap what they sow.

For the very few like these scratters they shoving genuine off there system shambles because ATOL so stupid. Goverments idiotic system of only getting paid when the throw pecentage off.

The system appeals is so full it going to take years to get through it not months. All they needed was to set the system up so genuine had no worries. The ones who was not rightful would should been weeded out. The current way has genuine very ill due to worry and stress of the worst. Sadly government believed there own hype train fueled by hate media gutter trash. Which would not be suprised fake reports where down to government to try make out more than 0.5% was fake claims.

The system needed rework for sure but not this abomidation on cheap thrill its suposed to make sure people on right money. Well many have been under claimed for years. Yet government not whinging about all the unclaimed funding people not getting. Sadly the population listened to the hype and lies fueled by media polititions afterall they would not lie would they. Sadly the odd screwballs like these then gets people to believe they all bad its stupid atitude. Wish people engage brains but seems despite educated they tend to get suckered.

So the whole situation this it will cost the government millions due to the overwhelming breakdown off the appeal system. As understand the government now contemplating the removal of allowing appeals. If they do it contravenes Human rights(guess this whole charade is anyway).

I hope disabled get together take this whole mess to EU human rights.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Dont know about the IB as the bbc has posted no evidence to support their statement (surprise surprise). IB isnt means tested so jjust because they got cash it doesnt mean it was wrongful claiming.

However I am shock they managed to claim WTC at the same time tho.

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

Thought i would post this,the man below used to serve in the army and his wife had health issues (learning difficulties) they were reduced to living on a very low amount,and were very probably entitled to more money but their claim seems to have had various setbacks with tragic consequences,here we have a couple of genuine people who the benefit system was desgned to help.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/881136-m...-utter-poverty

Yet they were left to their fate whereby those able to play the system like the conway sisters get their pockets stuffed with cash, it makes me.:mad::mad::mad:

Re: Conwy sisters tried to claim £161m in VAT, court hears
 

The problem is, along with any system where you have millions* of applications/claimants going through a complicated process, some people will slip thru (be that genuine claimants who suffer or "fake" claimants who abuse it) - the problem with the present system is that "some" seems to have grown in to "quite a lot".

Unfortunately, presenting outliers and extreme examples as evidence of the majority doesn't help, it just stirs up resentment and ill-feeling.

*as of Jan 2011, 2.5 million people received Incapacity Benefit (2 million on IB, and 500k on ESA).