CHARITIES helping keep the homeless off the streets are feeling the financial ill winds.
Hospitals admit they are under pressure having to deal with an increasingly elderly population.
Carers looking after disabled relatives are surviving – as in the case of Jen Wilcoxson highlighted in the Derby Telegraph earlier this week – on just £1 an hour of grants.
So it is sickening to hear of the huge sums in benefits fraudulently claimed by crook Terence Dunn. The power station rigger swindled almost £28,000 from the system by claiming he was "disabled".
Full credit to the Department of Work and Pensions for tracking down this shameless freeloader.
The Department seems to be fine-tuning its radar to identify these offenders.
Only in April we told how a serial benefits cheat from Melbourne had fraudulently claimed £15,000 while claiming she lived alone.
And in July, we revealed how a Derby fraudster has wrongly claimed nearly £17,000 while he had £46,000 in savings.
What can be done about these "fill your boots" merchants. Well, the DWP can only do its duty if it has the evidence in the first place.
So don't have sympathy for the benefits crooks – don't be afraid to report any suspicions. If people are honest, they will have nothing to fear.
The DWP said cases like this "cost money that should be used to help those in need".
A judge said one reason Dunn kept illegally claiming taxpayers' cash was that he had a "cynical feeling" that he could get away with it.
He did – for over 11 years, although he's now doing work without benefits – in jail.
