Introduction

The ‘abuse’ of welfare benefits by the unemployed takes four basic forms. The first is fraud, properly speaking, and concerns claimants who intentionally withhold information or make false statements bearing on their employment status and/or their net income. A quite different form of ‘abuse’, defined in moral rather than in legal terms, is constituted by claimants who allegedly exploit the system in a determined effort to obtain, irrespective of ‘real’ need, any and every available benefit. Malingering or scrounging is a related form of abuse, purportedly identifying claimants who could make private provision for themselves (e.g. by obtaining a job) but prefer rather to be state supported. A final form of abuse involves tampering with the payment instrument (giro cheque, for example), but this is comparatively rare and easily detected.

The issue of ‘working while claiming’ is addressed in this and the following chapter. Discussion of the alleged exploitation of the benefit system requires an examination of processes of benefit administration in social security offices, which is the subject of chapter 5. Malingering, finally, can only be considered in relation to the labour market and the levels of wages and benefits, topics which are explored throughout the book.

In Northern Ireland ‘doing the double’ refers to the practice of claiming SB (and/or unemployment benefit) while undertaking undeclared paid work. Conviction for such fraud carries a penalty of a fine or possibly a term of imprisonment.