Prisoners get £289k in bogus benefits
PRISONERS are wrongly pocketing thousands of pounds a week in benefits – including jobseekers’ allowance and money to heat their homes.
They also collect pension handouts, disability benefit and income support pay despite being held at taxpayers’ expense.
Figures showed an estimated £289,000 was wrongly paid to inmates last year.
The vast majority of the handouts were by mistake due to confusion from the prisoner – or officials – over what they were entitled to claim.
The bulk – £143,000 – was paid out to OAP convicts in state pensions. Another £107,000 was handed over in universal credit, £11,100 in disability living allowance, £10,500 in carer’s allowance and £5,700 in industrial injury disablement benefit.
The bill kept growing with £1,200 given to inmates in winter fuel payment and £1,100 as
personal independence payments. Entitlement to nearly all benefits stops as soon as someone is locked up, although some may still get help with housing costs if their sentence is less than six months.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Simple errors like this result in more benefits cash being wasted, at a time when welfare really needs to be spent well.”
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “Where an overpayment of this type does occur it remains recoverable unless subject to the ‘write-off’ criteria.”
A total £4.6billion vanishes from the annual £192billion benefit budget because of mistakes or fraud a year.