David Ruffley

MORE than £ 5.5 billion has been overpaid in benefits in the past five years, official figures showed yesterday.

The annual amount overpaid through fraud and error went down in the last financial year to £ 990 million from £ 1.1 billion the year before.

The figure, which covers Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance and Pension Credit, has fallen from £ 1.3 billion in 1997-8.

David Ruffley, Tory spokesman on welfare reform, said: "These latest figures expose the continuing incompetence of Department for Work and Pensions ministers.

FRAUD and cock-ups have cost taxpayers a staggering £ 5.5BILLION, official Government figures showed last night.

Overpayments and benefit fiddles have siphoned off income support, jobseeker's allowance and pension credit worth more than £ 1billion a year.

That would be enough to pay for 36,000 nurses, 30,000 new teachers, 26,000 police officers or 156,000 hip replacement operations.

Tory pensions spokesman David Ruffley said: "Fraud and error at these levels are unacceptable.

A STAGGERING Pounds 5.5billion has been overpaid to benefit claimants over the last five years, a report has revealed.

Those claiming Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance and Pension Credit were overpaid by nearly Pounds 1billion last year alone thanks to fraud and error.

The overpayments to pensioners, the unemployed and those off work sick come on top of the chaos gripping the tax credits system which overpaid claimants by more than Pounds 2billion last year.

WELFARE fraud and overpayment blunders are wasting Pounds 180 million a year in London alone.

In the South-East region outside the capital, another Pounds 120 million is being lost through official error or cheating.

ANIMAL-LOVING MPs including John Redwood and David Blunkett have come to the aid of Yorkshire terriers rescued from a filthy shed in West Sussex.

The dogs are among the 206 rescued from the windowless 60ft building after pet breeder Elizabeth Stevens, 73, died in April.

The case prompted outrage after a broadcast showed the animals packed into transport containers and riddled with disease. In "hellish" scenes, six dogs had been partially eaten by others desperate for food.

THE Government's longawaited benefit revolution was last night branded a "deeply flawed damp squib".

Ministers boasted their plans would get one million people on long-term sick and disablement benefit into work over 10 years and save taxpayers GBP 7billion a year.

But critics said the package wouldn't deliver the goods, and offered nothing to those now on incapacity benefit because the new rules will be imposed only on people who start claiming from 2008.

CONCERN has been voiced about huge cuts to Suffolk's road maintenance budget - as the county council admitted repairs are now being made to a 'lesser standard.'
A report to go before the council's roads and transport scrutiny committee this week reveals that the authority is bidding to save £735,000 on the budget in the current financial year.
It admits the cuts have been targeted at rural roads, and that repairs to potholes and edge defects are taking longer to carry out.

Bury St Edmunds could become the centre of historic national celebrations- if calls to reinstate an Anglo Saxon patron saint are answered.
The We are Backing St Edmund campaign wants to replace St George as patron saint of England with the murdered king who has intimate connections with the Bury landscape.
Former patron saint of England until the 13th century, King Edmund was killed by invading Vikings in 869AD at Bradfield St Clare after he refused to become a pagan. His body was moved in 903AD to where Bury is today.

SUPPORT is escalating for a campaign to get East Anglia's home-grown St Edmund reinstated as the patron saint of England.
The campaign, launched yesterday by BBC Radio Suffolk and the EADT, has already captured the nation's imagination and today you can sign up to support our petition to return St Edmund to his rightful place as the nation's patron saint.

HEALTH campaigners have spoken of their fears for the future after new figures revealed the region has lost more than 500 hospital beds over the last year.
But the Government insists that the decreasing number of beds across the country in fact reflects better patient care and more day case surgery.
The number of beds open overnight, critical care beds and residential beds in the two strategic health authorities' areas has reduced by more than 600 over the last year, the Department of Health statistics show.