Sheffield Council welcomes you to commit benefit fraud

[Cpt7]

I'm assuming that their contract says they're only allowed to spend X amount of money, and that hiring more bodies would exceed X - which would mean it's merely a matter of choosing how to break the contract, since keeping to it would be numerically impossible.

 

Another possibility, of course, is that the Council has simply ordered them to clear the backlog, and the quickest way to do it is to move everyone onto new claims until it's cleared. Whether that breaches the contract by suspending the investigation of fraud, I don't know - it should do.

 

Capita are fined heavily if they dont achieve X amount of claims processed, hence services to the elderly, area offices, fraud are all being cut to avoid the fines.

 

A large amount of these claims are from Eastern Europeans settling in Sheffield, this is where SCC see's the priority, as every pound paid out in Council Tax benefit is a pound classed as collected in Council tax bills, SCC has to collect something like 99% Council tax, so the more benefit it pays out the less it has to collect. So when it comes to April it looks as though its achieved its target collection rate

 

i hope that makes sense:)

[chem1st]

How would paying extra to about 25 million working people be cheaper?

 

There are what, 2 million unemployed out of 30 million working age adults... I can't see how multiplying the benefits bill by 10 to 15 times is in any way a saving.

 

Consider how much is paid to unemployed people on benefits, consider how much is paid in benefits to people in work, consider how much this costs in administration.

 

Consider also the 'work disincentive' that derives from our mad system.

 

With everybody (*better) off working, consider the increased production and better living standards.

 

Seriously, just look at the numbers!

 

And consider how unproductive it is, to pay people to monitor the unemployed, means tested benefits are madness.

(*And what these currently non productive people could produce)

[HeadingNorth]

It's not a very good contract if it details how the client is limited in meeting it's obligations.

It should have obligations, payment and penalty details, not internal implementation details.

 

If it has payment details, then the problem I outlined above could well exist; unless you argue that Capita should bankrupt itself by spending more than it's going to get paid.

[Jeffrey Shaw]

Odd, isn't it, that privatisation is supposedly OK when practised by The Sheffield City Council in favour of Capita, Kier, Veolia, etc?

 

Odd in what way? When is it supposedly not okay?

It's odd because left-wing ideology (Labour/LD) is against the selfsame privatisation that SCC practises.

[Cyclone]

Labour isn't against privatisation in practice, look at their last stint in parliament.

[Cyclone]

If it has payment details, then the problem I outlined above could well exist; unless you argue that Capita should bankrupt itself by spending more than it's going to get paid.

 

That's the risk a supplier takes when bidding to provide a piece of work where the volume can fluctuate. I bet they don't get paid less if the economy booms and the amount they have to process under this contract falls.

[Cyclone]

Capita are fined heavily if they dont achieve X amount of claims processed, hence services to the elderly, area offices, fraud are all being cut to avoid the fines.

 

A large amount of these claims are from Eastern Europeans settling in Sheffield, this is where SCC see's the priority, as every pound paid out in Council Tax benefit is a pound classed as collected in Council tax bills, SCC has to collect something like 99% Council tax, so the more benefit it pays out the less it has to collect. So when it comes to April it looks as though its achieved its target collection rate

 

i hope that makes sense:)

 

Not really, and on many levels.

[strangerthe6]

That's the risk a supplier takes when bidding to provide a piece of work where the volume can fluctuate. I bet they don't get paid less if the economy booms and the amount they have to process under this contract falls.

 

I believe the amount they get does fall if the amount of claims drops below a certain level. Not likely to happen in the forseeable future.

[Cpt7]

Not really, and on many levels.

 

Its quite simple really, to generalise, SCC is more than happy to pay people benefits as it helps with targets set by the government, therefore other services are cut to help process these claims ie Fraud.

[strangerthe6]

Just read that there's a crackdown on fraudulent benefit claims. Obviously not in Sheffield though!