Benefit cheats face crackdown

Agencies/London

Ministers have said they will use “all the powers of the law” to claw back taxpayers’ money stolen by benefits cheats.

The department for work and pensions has published a rogues’ gallery of the worst convicted fraudsters who have been ordered to pay back hundreds of thousands of pounds.

In 2012-13, the department’s specialist Financial Investigation Unit obtained 271 confiscation orders worth £8.9mn - a 50% increase by value on the previous year.

Welfare Minister Lord Freud said: “These cases should serve as a warning to the cynical minority who see benefits as a way of unfairly lining their pockets at the taxpayer’s expense. You will face justice and we will use all the powers of the law to close down bank accounts, freeze assets and force the sale of properties to claw back the stolen money and any proceeds made from that stolen money. Those who refuse will face time behind bars and still have to pay up when they are out.”