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Welfare Reform Bill

I am slightly puzzled that the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas—although I really sympathise with her on this—believes that fraud comes out of vulnerability and misunderstanding. I am sure that the three big areas of fraud are: first, that you are claiming the JSA and earning on the side; secondly, that you are a lone parent with a live-in boyfriend and therefore not really a lone parent; and, thirdly, where landlords and tenants collude in trying to maximise housing benefit. In almost none of those circumstances could you say that there was anything other than the intent to deceive. On the question of fraud arising from misunderstanding the paperwork, in my experience departments, civil servants and advisers bend over backwards to give people the benefit of the doubt. One knows and can recognise what conventional up-front fraud actually looks like.