This is a cross-post from A Rabbit’s Eye-View of the Hyperborean North.
… says George Osbourne when announcing anti-fraud initiatives including a three year suspension of benefits rights following a “three strikes” conviction (apparently based on an American sporting term), and £50 fines for deliberately or inadvertently providing misinformation of claim-forms.
An acquaintance of mine obtained menial work at a supermarket which barely surpassed the money he was receiving through benefit. He carried on claiming for a few weeks, with the intention of clearing one outstanding debt, but was rumbled.
A court trial followed, with full repayment demanded and community service (although, unlike some, this did not presage failure which puts in mind of the Protocols of the Elders of Capel Seion).
Another acquaintance is on the minimum state pension, and has just been informed that some £600 have been overpaid. It looks as if he will be required to repay this through reduced payments, despite having accepted it in good faith.
Fortunately, I live in the Calvinistic Republic of Scotland where Alex Salmond has promised a two year freeze of rises in council tax, believes in “bobbies not boundaries” and finally has found a small (semi)-independent country which offers a credible promise of economically viable self-rule.
