Lord Freud, the welfare reform minister, said that people found making fraudulent benefits claims will face new penalties, including bans on new claims and having their assets seized.
For the most serious causes of fraud, offenders could be banned from making fresh welfare claims for life, the minister argued.
The Department of Work and Pensions estimates that fraudulent benefits claims cost the taxpayer around £1 billion a year.
Coalition ministers have pledged to cut fraud and error in the welfare system as part of a bid to shave £11 billion off benefits spending during this Parliament.
Lord Freud said that benefits fraud, often by organised gangs, ultimately hurts legitimate claimants.
“We will put a stop to the fraudsters who infiltrate and steal money from our benefit system,” he said in a speech in London, “Criminal gangs and identity fraudsters who persistently steal money meant for the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society will be severely punished.
“We will track them down using the latest technology and when they have been caught and prosecuted, we will strip them of their assets and ban them from claiming benefits for long periods.

Good.
That is all.

Not good, at all.

The Social are guaranteed to f**k up someone's benefit and then stitch them up as fraudsters.

What's the percentage of those doing that compared to the percentage who are merely using what they're entitled to?
My sister, for example, is presently unemployed but too proud to sign on and claim any of the benefits she's entitled to after 20 years of teaching.
For every one benefits cheat, there's probably a dozen who are entitled but don't claim.

Not good, at all.

The Social are guaranteed to f**k up someone's benefit and then stitch them up as fraudsters.

This is a publicity stunt which could never result in actual legislation. Banning somebody from making welfare claims for life would result in a massively expensive appeal to the European court which the govt would be guaranteed to lose.

And very embarrassing. Maybe the EU should have a law that bans for life any politician that comes up with a stupid law being allowed to travel within the EU.

Just to be clear, it would be a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights and the ECHR has nothing to do with either the European Union or Community Law.

I read the front page of the local rag today. Some woman claimed £51,000 a year in benefits whilst she worked as a pub landlady and ran the pub. Obviously there has to be some way of punishing such people. I have some ideas but they are extreme.

I think lifetime bans are going to be unenforceable but there should be a way of making sure fraudsters are punished, pay back their fraud and also deterred from doing it again.

Just to be clear, it would be a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.