David Ruffley

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.

THE Government's longawaited benefit revolution was last night branded a flop.

Ministers boasted they would get a million people on long-term sick and disability benefit into work over 10 years and save the taxpayer GBP 7billion a year.

But critics said the package offered nothing to those now on Incapacity Benefit because the new rules will be imposed only on people who start claiming from 2008.

LABOUR'S vow to move one million people off Incapacity Benefit within ten years is a sham, say Tories.

The Government said welfare reforms would slash the number of claimants from 2.7million today to 1.7million by 2016.

But ministers were accused yesterday of fiddling the figures after it emerged there will be 350 , 000 fewer claimants by then even if nothing is done.

That means Labour will have to move only 650,000 off the benefit to hit the target.

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.

A top consultant at West Suffolk Hospital and an MP have joined forces to condemn attempts to undermine its services.

The region's Strategic Health Authority is conducting a review into hospitals in the East which could lead to changes and possible closures.

This week John Urquhart, consultant anaesthetist and chairman of the hospital consultants, said that doctors had an 'absolute determination' that the hospital should survive.

He also described as 'reprehensible' any efforts to close hospitals based on the political map of the region.