David Ruffley

Benefit overpayments equivalent to £104 for EVERY household have been made since Labour came to power.

Bungling penpushers have wasted £2.5billion of taxpayers' cash since 1997 - £1.17billion of it on incorrect Income Support payments, figures show.

Tory MP David Ruffley, who uncovered the figures, said: 'Gordon Brown's fiddling with the system and ministers' incompetent running of it is causing chaos.'

The Department for Work and Pensions will not ask for overpayments back, it said last night.

THE unemployed and people on low incomes have received more than pounds 2 billion in overpaid benefits since Labour came to power.

The Government yesterday blamed "official error''. The Tories described the total as "shocking''.

Ministers said there was nothing they could do to recoup the cash other than ask people to repay it voluntarily.

The figures were compiled from answers to parliamentary questions tabled by David Ruffley, the Conservative spokesman for welfare reform.

David Ruffley MP has today spoken out about proposed changes made by the Government to the draft East of England Plan.

The changes, announced this week, have seen the Government increase the number of new houses to be built in Suffolk over the next 15 years from 58,600 to 61,700- an increase of 3,100 houses.

In November the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) warned building 500,000 new homes in the East of England will place huge pressure on the environment and 'carve up the countryside'.

More than 100,000 drug addicts and alcoholics are being paid incapacity benefit every week, it has been reported.

The Daily Telegraph states the number of people claiming they cannot work and are receiving benefits because of drug abuse and alcoholism has doubled in nine years.

It says claimants are paid £78.50 a week, roughly £20 more than they would get on Jobseekers' Allowance.

Government figures show 48,960 people were on incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance because the "primary diagnosis" was that they were alcoholics, compared to 27,100 in 1997.

THE Government's long awaited 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.

TONY Blair's shake-up of Britain's welfare system was branded a"dampsquib" by the Tories last night.

The overhaul -published yesterday -will fail to take ONE claimant off incapacity benefit.

The Government has set up instead a £ 300million Pathways To Work scheme to help those on sick benefit find work.

Tory spokesman David Ruffley warned that existing claimants would be "left out in the cold".

David Ruffley MP will join members of the West Suffolk Branch of the Alzheimer's Society on Friday, 17 November at their office in the Risbygate Centre, Risbygate Street, Bury St Edmunds at 2.30 p.m. to support their national campaign 'Hands off Dementia Drugs'.

The Alzheimer's Society has expressed outrage at the NICE appeal panel's rejection of the Alzheimer's Society's appeal on access to Alzheimer's drugs.

David Ruffley MP will chair a meeting organised by the Cedars Park Residents' Association at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, 17 November. The meeting is being held at Cedars Park Primary School, Pintail Road, Stowmarket.

The meeting will be open to all Cedars Park residents.

David Ruffley has called representatives of Mid Suffolk District Council to the meeting. Those attending from the Council are: Councillor Tim Passmore, Leader, Peter Burrows, Senior Planning Officer, and Stowmarket Councillor, Frank Whittle.

David Ruffley MP has today written to the leaders of St Edmundsbury Borough Council and Mid Suffolk District Council asking what steps their Councils are taking to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from domestic sources.

New figures, published this week by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), show that, per capita, residents in St Edmundsbury and Mid Suffolk were responsible for 2.7 tonnes and 2.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions respectively from domestic sources in 2004, the latest year for which figures are available.

David Ruffley MP has today written to Councillor Patricia O'Brien, Portfolio Holder for Children, Schools and Young People's Services at Suffolk County Council, highlighting a £51,359 grant for a 'youth-friendly' website to promote positive activities for young people in Suffolk.

The grant is the first step in increasing young people's involvement in positive activities and establishing and promoting the activities that are available within the county.