‘Public will be suspicious’ of why SF is shielding benefit fraudsters

Suspicions will abound about a move by the new Sinn Fein communities minister to stop naming benefit cheats, given the constituencies which could stand to be affected the most.
By Adam Kula
Published 31st Jan 2020, 09:00 BST
Housing Benefit claims, per constituency, in 2016. The darkest ones are constituencies with 11,050-plus claimants, and the picture is much the same regardless of which of the six benefits here are looked atHousing Benefit claims, per constituency, in 2016. The darkest ones are constituencies with 11,050-plus claimants, and the picture is much the same regardless of which of the six benefits here are looked at
Housing Benefit claims, per constituency, in 2016. The darkest ones are constituencies with 11,050-plus claimants, and the picture is much the same regardless of which of the six benefits here are looked at

That is the view of DUP MLA Paul Givan, one of Deirdre Hargey’s predecessors in charge of the department, who was reacting to her decision to axe a long-running practice of publicising successful prosecutions of fraudsters.

Mr Givan said the public will question “the motivation behind this decision”, given the high rates of benefit claimants in constituencies which are important to Sinn Fein.

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The News Letter has sifted through data from the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) concerning where most benefits are claimed, and it shows they are concentrated in constituencies which are politically-dominated by republicans/nationalists.

Deirdre HargeyDeirdre Hargey
Deirdre Hargey

The two benefits which the department indicates make up the overwhelming bulk of fraudulent claims are Housing Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance (costing an estimated £22.6m and £14m in false claims, respectively, in 2016).

The constituencies with the highest numbers of claimants for these benefits are Foyle, North Belfast, and West Belfast.

All three have either republican or nationalist MPs, with a majority of MLAs in each are seat also being republican or nationalist.

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Delving deeper, an examination of the other four benefits for which the department has readily-publicised fraud figures – namely Pension Credit, Jobseekers Allowance, Carer’s Allowance and Income Support (which accounted for a combined total of £14.2m-worth of fraud in 2016) – show that North and West Belfast rank in the top three each time in number of claimants, with Foyle also making the top three in all but one of them (pension credits, where third place went to another republican-dominated constituency, Newry and Armagh).

Former communities minister Mr Givan said that “people are less likely to commit these type of fraudulent claims if they’re operating in the knowledge that they may well be shamed publicly for it,” adding that “it is hard to see what the justification is for stopping it”.

Asked if he believes the political make-up of the constituencies where most benefit claimants live had formed part of Ms Hargey’s thinking, he said: “I think people will be suspicious as to what the motivation behind this decision is, given the constituencies that’d have the highest number of issues in this area.

He said: “I think people will be suspicious as to what the motivation behind this decision is, given the constituencies that’d have the highest number of issues in this area.

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“It’d be for the minister to provide greater clarity around what her decision-making process is, and what factors she has taken into account in reaching this decision.

“That’s something I’m sure the Assembly will want to explore with the minister.”

All the data examined by the News Letter comes from NISRA’s NINIS service, which maps out where the top constituencies are in Northern Ireland terms of the number of people claiming each type of benefit as of 2016.

Mr Givan’s remarks were put to the department, but it failed to offer any response by the News Letter’s deadline.

Related topics:Paul GivanSinn FeinDeirdre HargeyDUPFoyle