You know things are tough when ...

[UncleEbenezer]

Someone with both the braincells to notice an obvious fraud and the persuasive skills to get TPTB to take heed was working as a junior civil servant - presumably processing claim forms.

e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55022008

[AF62]

Someone with both the braincells to notice an obvious fraud and the persuasive skills to get TPTB to take heed was working as a junior civil servant - presumably processing claim forms.

e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55022008

I would suggest there were an awful lot of people in the DWP at all levels who were aware that there would be an attack on the system by organised criminal gangs as soon as the controls were relaxed when COVID hit. But with the government focused on shovelling out the cash to stop the country collapsing, then I can guarantee the message which came down from on high was ‘don’t question just do it’.

This story doesn’t seem to reported anywhere else in the media at the moment and is a bit sketchy on facts. Was the fraud stopped at the time. How did the BBC get the news. etc.

[Mike4]

It seems a major failing that the gummint software didn't notice these 10,000 fraudulent applications all nominated the same bank account, and it took a "junior civil servant" to raise the alarm.

[PinkDalek]

It seems a major failing that the gummint software didn't notice these 10,000 fraudulent applications all nominated the same bank account, ...

Except the article doesn't say that:

In May, a junior civil servant working with High Street banks noticed dozens of claims for universal credit had been made asking for money to be paid into the same bank account.

[Mike4]

It seems a major failing that the gummint software didn't notice these 10,000 fraudulent applications all nominated the same bank account, ...

Except the article doesn't say that:

In May, a junior civil servant working with High Street banks noticed dozens of claims for universal credit had been made asking for money to be paid into the same bank account.

I heard it on the radio and must have mis-heard. Even so my point remains, you'd have thought there would be some cross-checking in the software. Dozens of claims into the same account should be flagged up in software for further checking. Or maybe that is actually what happened!

[bungeejumper]

I heard it on the radio and must have mis-heard. Even so my point remains, you'd have thought there would be some cross-checking in the software. Dozens of claims into the same account should be flagged up in software for further checking. Or maybe that is actually what happened!

I daresay they were using an old Excel spreadsheet to record the bank account details, and it had run out of rows.

I also wish I were joking.

BJ