News

The DWP have joined forces with Crimestoppers in a campaign against benefits fraud whose imagery will leave many claimants shocked and outraged.

The campaign advert being used by Crimestoppers features a number of pictures showing people with hate-filled, contorted faces and one with a raised fist as they contemplate the alleged dishonesty of claimants. The advert does not actually condone violence against claimants, but it certainly portrays extreme anger as a normal response to the suspicion, which will usually be entirely unfounded, that someone is committing benefit fraud. The advert can be found on the Crimestoppers website.

The Daily Express, alludes briefly to other forms of fraud but predictably concentrates on benefit fraud in an article entitled “​New blitz on benefit cheats”​. Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform, is also quoted in the article as referring to “​benefit thieves”​.

So, yet again, claimants are in the spotlight, being singled out for special treatment by the government and parts of the press in another attempt to convince the general public that claimants are dishonest and that the benefits system is riddled with claimants cheating both the tax-payer and “​genuine”​ claimants.