Reply geoff reynolds says: September 10, 2013 at 9:16 am “JUST HAD TO PUT THIS ON” IT SHOWS THE CONTEMPT OF THE DWP IN ITS FULL GLORY….. Please read the story and the DWP reply at the end. Thank you for your Freedom of Information request received on 22/08/2013. For ease of reference I have reproduced your request in full below: I’m going to initially mention a specific case but then move into the topic more generally. Robert Punter, a one-legged man was falsely accused of fiddling disability benefit after officials examined his wrong leg in error. He had undergone a nightmare year of anxiety after being taken to court by benefits officials who told him he was not disabled enough to claim the allowance even though he was having his leg amputated. The mix up occurred because the 63-year-old ex trucker, whose left leg was shattered in a boyhood shotgun accident, also suffered a serious toe injury in his right foot. He was prosecuted when officials found a letter in his medical file showing he had made a full recovery from this operation and accused him of lying about his condition. He is angry that he has been treated as a dole fiddler despite battling to overcome his disability and working for 47 years, often in excruciating pain. After months of waiting for his case to be heard at Crown Court, it was actually thrown out in less than five minutes. The case was dropped after the defence solicitor obtained a statement from Torbay Hospital consultant Mr Patrick Loxdale confirming that Robert had always suffered from a disability which entitled him to benefit. A Department of Work and Pensions spokeswoman said:”We cannot comment on individual cases. “In this case the defendant’s health deteriorated as the case was being progressed. In light of his deteriorating health it was not in the public interest for this case to continue.” Thus now onto my questions: How much money did the above error cost the DWP? How much money did the DWP lose since August 2012 taking claimants to court and losing the cases? (Please note I’m not asking for a defence of DWP actions and what it’s doing to cut costs in this request) Yours faithfully, …………………………………………………………………………. Dear Mr Whilst I understand the sentiments behind your questions, the Department for Work and Pensions does not accept that an error occurred in bringing a prosecution in the case you refer to. The Department believes it is right to seek to prosecute those people committing benefit fraud where the fraud has been serious enough to warrant it and where the evidence exists to justify a prosecution. This is so that the courts can independently decide the outcome, taking in to account all the circumstances and what punishment to give if the accused is found to be guilty.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 09:38:09 +0000
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