Benefit Fraud - The Inside Story

Benefit fraud is a multi-billion pound industry. Investigating that fraud is a complex and sometimes dangerous enterprise that takes investigators to the heart of Britain’s social problems. “Benefit Thieves” is the inside story of the work of one undercover Special Investigator as he tangles with major criminals and the ingenious spongers on our Welfare State.

The villains are not just the benefit fraudsters. “Benefit Thieves” shows how central and local government fraudulently pretend to be tackling the problem. They prefer to meet so-called “targets” while letting the fraudsters get away with millions of pounds of our money.

Here is one maverick’s story from the inside, a page-turning account of the underside of British society. In any major company, a man who brought in 10 times his salary would be treasured. But Britain’s civil service is not like that. The Department that should be taking care of taxpayers’ money, while ensuring that the genuinely needy get the benefits they deserve, has dispensed with the Special Investigators who can help to make that happen.

Fact is sometimes stranger than fiction, and this book proves it. Would you sleep with your dead husband in order to draw his benefit? One woman did! Would you expect your benefit officer to risk the wrath and revenge of a major criminal? This Special Investigator did.

This book should be essential reading for policy makers in central and local government offices. It is also a rattling good read.