The use of defamatory language is being used in a totally irresponsible and callous manner by a steadily increasing number of newspapers and other media providers.
I believe that the press and the wider media are blatantly using this language as a means of labeling all disabled benefit claimants as ‘cheats’ and ‘scroungers’, yet most are genuine sick and disabled people who are in many instances unable to work and are asking for only the very basic levels of support.
Such support is in no way over generous, as some newspapers are claiming, with administrative error and miscalculations at 0.5% and benefit fraud at just 0.9% of the total benefits expenditure. In fact disability benefits like Disability Living Allowance have some of the lowest levels of fraud of all forms of social security benefits, at around 0.5%, and it is estimated that up to £16Billion remain unclaimed in benefits every year. A significant fact that news provider’s and even the coalition government are neglecting to inform the public.
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