Reblogged from Vox Political:
Iain
Duncan Smith and everybody else associated with this scam should be
facing charges and the possibility of imprisonment, rather than
re-election next year.
Let’s be honest about this: The government hasn’t messed up by
omitting Universal Credit claimants from the official unemployment
benefit claimant count – the Department for Work and Pensions messed up
by admitting this had happened.
It means we may be looking at a long-term attempt to defraud the
electorate. The plan seems clear: When the general election finally
takes place next year, Iain Duncan Smith would have claimed that his
policies have been a brilliant success in creating jobs and cutting down
the number of people claiming benefits.
If people are convinced that the DWP has succeeded in cutting the
amount of money being paid out in benefits – the burden on the taxpayer –
then they are more likely to vote for the Conservatives. Electoral
victory means more money for everybody involved – what’s known as a
pecuniary advantage.
But the claim has been made by deception. Obtaining a pecuniary
advantage by deception is the dictionary definition of criminal fraud.
There can be no doubt that the omission was deliberate. When it comes
to fiddling the official figures, the DWP has ‘form’ going back for
years. Look at the lies about the benefit cap pushing people into work;
the way people on ESA were encouraged to say they were self-employed and
claim tax credits – even though this is not permitted and they were
racking up a huge overpayment.
Look at the abuses of the sanction system; look at the abuses of the
IB/ESA work capability assessment; look at the number of successful
appeals against the DWP that have been kept out of official figures.
The claimant count, which provides the headline unemployment figure,
is the number of people claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance every month – and
has been for many years.
But Iain Duncan Smith’s flagship (if the ship was the Titanic)
Universal Credit is up and running – on an extremely limited basis – in
certain pilot areas of the country, and people without a job in those
areas should be included in the claimant count.
This has not happened...
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