http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8494105.stm
This is a mad story.
We need targets to make sure more people claim benefits as it is known that they aren't doing so.
Now if the Dept of Work and Pensions already knows that people are entitled to benefits without the people having claimed them then why can't they just pay them anyway.
If they don't know , then how do they know that their thinking is correct. The people they are guessing may be entitled may not be when they do claim.
I don't mind helping. Email me for a Paypal address where you can leave as much money as you need to.
It does sound daft. I especially agree that if they know they are entitled why not just send it.
In the olden days there used to be a reason people didn't get as many benefits as they were entitled to. The staff used to have a policy of lying about it unless you really insisted you wanted it.
For example (one of many) a very long time ago I needed emergency help for a couple of days. Was briefly homeless & penniless. I was told they absolutely couldn't give me money because I'd need to have an address to send it to. They didn't have the means or authority to hand a giro over the counter.
I said politely, but firmly something like "I happen to know there is provision for that in emergencies and that you CAN do that".
They just said "okay then wait over there and we'll bring it out to you in a bit"
So now they can't GIVE it away? times have changed.
It will be jobs for the boys won't it. A new team to set the targets and another team to try and achieve the targets, so lots of new government jobs there. A result.
My granny was in hundreds of pounds of debt which was written off. She was on income support and all that goes with it and went into hospital. This somehow meant she was no longer automatically entitled to rent rebate and council tax benefit so the debts built up while she was in hospital.
So even if you are entitled they don't always pay you.
Poor homeless penniless Pani, I spent years signing on but to be homeless as well must be awful and scary.
The whole benefit system needs scrapping and a new much simpler one invented really.
Ah, yes, I do recall some thin years.
One year, when Thingummie Major had a teaching job so far away, the fuel costs were almost more than the tiny salary, and I was back in school and only working part time, spending more money on edification than I made, and Thingummie Minor was a mere albeit delightful encumbrance, we had precious little income indeed. Still we scraped through with a song and a smile.
We paid our income taxes as usual. Then we got an envelope from the Internal Revenue Service, asking whether somehow we might have maybe overlooked the existence of "earned income credit", and wouldn't we like to consider applying for a refund of what we'd paid? Or if we didn't want to fill in the form, we could ask the IRS to do it for us.
Without noticing, we had achieved poverty levels. We were astonished to receive such a courteous nudge from the government, and did indeed file for the bit of our cash back.
I don't know which was more surprising, the fact of our sinking so cheerfully into the low income bracket, or that Uncle Sam bothered to offer us a refund.
Well it was only briefly until I got stuff sorted out. I wouldn't like it on a regular basis 
and they did help in the end. Just might have been a lot harder if I'd not known what the rules were myself.
I agree about 'jobs for the boys' and targets. They do like their targets. Pity they are such bad shots 
They did set out to simplify it once. They did improve the forms a bit. From horrendous to simply awful as I recall. 