Fraudsters used the personal bank details of thousands of civil servants to make bogus claims for disability benefits worth tens of millions of pounds, the Sunday Telegraph has learned.
Officials at HM Revenue & Customs yesterday confirmed that the Revenue had linked the massive rise in payments of a valuable disability benefit with the theft of the payroll data of 13,000 Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) employees last summer.
The Sunday Telegraph revealed last week that Revenue officials had launched an investigation into a shock surge in the number of people claiming the Disabled Workers Element (DWE) of the Working Tax Credit, part of the beleaguered benefits system introduced by Gordon Brown, the chancellor, three years ago.
The number of people applying for this benefit jumped from 36,800 to 67,400 between April and December 2005.
Fraudsters used the stolen payroll data to set up bank accounts and apply for benefits in the name of DWP staff.
"It was always a weak link in the system," said an official close to the investigation. "You could apply for the disability benefit online, and there were not the resources to check whether these people were actually disabled."
The DWE offers applicants Р€2,165 extra income per year. An additional Р€920 is available for those who apply for the "severely disabled element".
Source: telegraph.co.uk
