Lags milking £10m a year in hand-outs

CONVICTED criminals including killers are milking millions of pounds in state hand-outs from behind bars, it was revealed yesterday.

FRAUD Criminals are milking millions of pounds in state hand outs from behind bars FRAUD: Criminals are milking millions of pounds in state hand-outs from behind bars

Hundreds of crooks continue to draw benefits after being jailed, even though they are ineligible according to the rules.[>

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The massive fraud is costing the taxpayer more than £10million a year.[>

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And lags are getting away with the  rip-off because, astonishingly, it is left to them to notify the Govern-ment they have been sent to prison.[>

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Those using the loophole to cash in include Ghulam Mirza, 38, serving life for the frenzied knife killing of his wife. He has been drawing £63 a week incapacity benefit for the past six months. He has also received £639 in back-dated hand-outs.[>

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Factory worker Mirza admitted stabbing his wife, Nilom, 41, 13 times at their Manchester home in October last year, and slashing her sister, Nabila, four times when she tried to intervene.[>

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Their brother John, 35, said: “He actually set up a bank account to claim from prison. But what is more disgusting is that my sister, who is a single mum, only receives about £10 more a week than him.”[>

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The extent of the scrounging was revealed in a report for the Department for Work and Pensions entitled Fraud and Error in the Benefit System.[>

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Latest figures showed that prisoners were overpaid to the tune of £10million in income support for the year ending September, 2007. Benefit fraud overall rose by £100million a year to a staggering £2.7billion.[>

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The DWP admitted prisoners were continuing to draw benefits because they had failed to report that they had been sent down.[>

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Critics labelled a system that was so open to abuse as “crazy”.[>

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TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliott said: “This is a scandal. It is totally wrong that law-abiding citizens should be paying millions to criminals. It is an absolutely crazy system where good people are expected to subsidise those who break the law.”[>

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