Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-9nwgx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-16T17:05:20.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

No More Benefit Cheats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2022

Simon Duffy  and
Jonathan Wolff
Simon Duffy*
Affiliation:
Citizen Network
Jonathan Wolff*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The concept of the ‘benefit cheat’ plays a critical role in political rhetoric and public policy and it has been deployed to justify changes to the benefit system that have had a very negative impact on well being and justice. The authors argue that the concept is dangerous, adding to the existing burdens of poverty and exclusion and that it must be eradicated by a reorganisation of the welfare system. Dignity and a spirit of equality must be the starting point for any system of welfare that aims to promote universal well being.

Type
Paper
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 91: A Philosophers' Manifesto: Ideas and Arguments to Change the World , May 2022 , pp. 103 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barr, B., Taylor-Robinson, D., Stuckler, D. et al. ‘“First, Do No Harm”: Are Disability Assessments Associated With Adverse Trends in Mental Health? A Longitudinal Ecological Study’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 70 (2016) 339–45. doi:10.1136/jech-2015-206209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benstead, S., Second Class Citizens: The Treatment of Disabled People in Austerity Britain, (Sheffield: Centre for Welfare Reform, 2019).Google Scholar
Cowburn, Ashley, ‘Benefit Fraud Witch Hunt.’ Independent (2018). https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/benefit-fraud-public-tip-offs-legal-action-police-no-evidence-dwp-work-pensions-department-a8144096.html [accessed 26 July 2021]Google Scholar
Daily Mirror ‘Benefit Cheats’ Daily Mirror (2020) https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/benefit-cheats [accessed 1 November 2020]Google Scholar
Dept for Work and Pensions. ‘Fraud and Error in the Benefit System 2019/20.’ (2020a) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/888423/fraud-and-error-stats-release-2019-2020-estimates-revised-29-may-2020.pdf [accessed 26 July 2021]Google Scholar
Dept for Work and Pensions. ‘DWP Benefits Statistical Summary’ (2020b) https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-statistical-summaries [accessed 30 August 2021].Google Scholar
Dept for Work and Pensions (2021). Fraud and Error in the Benefit System 2020/21. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fraud-and-error-in-the-benefit-system-financial-year-2020-to-2021-estimates/fraud-and-error-in-the-benefit-system-for-financial-year-ending-2021 [accessed 26 July 2021]Google Scholar
Duffy, S., Keys to Citizenship, 2nd Edition. (Sheffield: Centre for Welfare Reform, 2006).Google Scholar
Duffy, S., Listening Up to Poverty. (Sheffield: Centre for Welfare Reform, 2014). https://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/library/listening-up-to-poverty.html [accessed 30 August 2021]Google Scholar
Duffy, S., Basic Income or Basic Services? (Sheffield: Centre for Welfare Reform, 2018). https://centreforwelfarereform.org/library/basic-income-or-basic-services.html [accessed 27 July 2021]Google Scholar
Entitledto, ‘Over £20 Billion Still Unclaimed In Means Tested Benefits’ (2018) https://www.entitledto.co.uk/blog/2018/december/over-20-billion-still-unclaimed-in-means-tested-benefits/ [accessed 26 July 2021]Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, S., Bramley, G., Sosenko, J. et al. , Destitution in the UK. (York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2016). https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/destitution-uk [accessed 30 August 2021]Google Scholar
GOV.UK Report Benefit Fraud (undated a) https://www.gov.uk/report-benefit-fraud [accessed 26 July 2021]Google Scholar
GOV.UK Benefits: Report a Change in Your Circumstances (undated b) https://www.gov.uk/report-benefits-change-circumstances [accessed 26 July 2021]Google Scholar
Lewis, A., The Principles of Economic Planning (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1948).Google Scholar
Marmot, M., The Health Gap, (London: Bloomsbury, 2015).Google ScholarPubMed
Mutch, M. and Dresch, M., ‘‘Hard Working Decent Mum’ Jailed’ Daily Mirror (2020). https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hard-working-decent-mum-jailed-22163499 [accessed 26 July 2021]Google Scholar
Peck, L., ‘Food Banks in 2019’ (Sheffield: Centre for Welfare Reform, 2019). https://centreforwelfarereform.org/library/uk-food-banks-in-2019.html [accessed 30 August 2021]Google Scholar
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, ‘UK Poverty 2019/20’ (York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2020) https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2019-20 [accessed 30 August 2021]Google Scholar
Rowntree, B.S., Poverty: A Study of Town Life (London: Macmillan, 1901).Google Scholar
Rowntree, B.S., The Human Needs of Labour (London: Longmans Green & Co, 1937. Revised edition).Google Scholar
Spicker, P., How Social Security Works, (Bristol: Policy Press 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, G., ‘Food Banks In The UK’ (House of Commons Library, 2021). https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8585/CBP-8585.pdf [accessed 24 July 2021)Google Scholar
Watts, B. and Fitzpatrick, S., Welfare Conditionality, (London: Routledge., 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolff, J., ‘Fairness, Respect, and the Egalitarian Ethos’. Philosophy & Public Affairs 27 (1998), 97–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolff, J., Ethics and Public Policy, (London: Routledge, 2020, 2nd ed.)Google Scholar
Wolff, J. and de-Shalit, A., Disadvantage (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worrall, P., ‘Benefit Fraud vs Tax Evasion’, Channel 4, (2015). https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-benefits-fraud-tax-evasion [accessed 25 July 2021]Google Scholar