Originally Posted by the_neurotic_cat

When I applied for DLA I was initially refused. During the appeal process I turned to an advisor that helped me give the correct responses to be awarded the benefit, it wasn't fraud but one has to know how to respond to the DWP or people with legitimate claims get turned down. Hearing people giving each other advise on how to fill out claims for benefits doesn't necessarily mean there's fraud.

The budget of the DWP is about £130bn (last time i checked) and fraud counted for about £1.6bn of that. It's a problem yes, but it's not prolific.

We've also got to bear in mind that once you've been unemployed for a while it gets a lot harder to get back into work. Employers are very picky and the job market is currently going to be expanding due to thousands of redundant government employees hitting the jobs market looking for work, that's going to make it even harder to long term unemployed to get a job.

Some people are just plain, unemployable. I'd rather risk someone getting welfare that doesn't need it than someone who does not getting it.