MOST people will no doubt be shocked to discover that criminals can claim Incapacity Benefit while detained under the Mental Health Act.
These include some of the country’s most notorious serial killers such as Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and Moors murderer Ian Brady.
Incapacity Benefit is paid to people who cannot work due to illness or disability, but surely commonsense dictates that if someone is locked up in a prison or a secure mental hospital they are not available for work so how can it possibly be right they can successfully claim such an entitlement?
This must be hard to read for many people who have undergone gruelling reassessments to prove they are eligible for a specific benefit or others who have had theirs withdrawn under an increasingly tougher system.
The potential for caged killers to claim the benefit was described in the House of Commons as “an anomaly’’ by Employment Minister Chris Grayling.
The question is how long have MPs known about this and just what steps are being taken to sort it out?
This must have been going on for years and many people in authority must have known and yet nothing was done.
Let’s hope more and more whistleblowers come forward when they see something blatantly wrong within a
system so that it can be put right ... and quickly.
