Prisoners who have been paid benefits by mistake have been able to keep over £4 million a year, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. 

The Evening Standard report:

More than £18 million in benefits wrongly paid to prisoners for the past four years has not been clawed back, figures published today reveal.

A freedom of information request by the Mail on Sunday found that between 2007 and 2011, overpayments as a result of “customers being in prison” were made worth £31.7 million.

But the Department for Work and Pensions figures said only £13.1 million was recovered – a shortfall of £18.6 million, or £4.65 million per year.

You can read the full story here. 

Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.