I'm not sure what to make of this, but the other day Chris Grayling asked the DWP "how many fraudulent applications for maternity pay there were in each of the last 10 years; and how many of the claimants were men." And the answer was simply that "[t]he information is not available."
Now I'm guessing that the answer just means the Government has no record of it happening but it's covering its arse just in case Mr Grayling knows something they don't. Best to say "the information is not available" than to say "there have been no fraudulent applications for maternity benefits in the last 10 years" just in case there has been.
Here's a question though. How does one go about committing this sort of fraud? After all, there is a key element involved that proves whether one is genuine or not. And how on earth a man might go about doing it is beyond me. If it turns out that Grayling is on to something and such things have been going on then the system is clearly knackered.
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Speculative thought: I don't know what proof you actually need to claim maternity pay, never having had to do it, but it occurs to me that men named Hilary, Vivien, Leslie (Lesley), Francis (Frances), and other such ambiguous forenames would start with an advantage. Provided that any proof of identity didn't include the title "Mr" (of course Dr or Professor would be nicely ambiguous too), it might be quite easy to get away with.
Or if one was wearing a full burqa?
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