Lie detector tests to catch benefit cheats

Lie detector tests to catch benefit cheats

Benefit claimants will face lie detector tests and will lose benefits for a month if found guilty of fiddling the system under proposals unveiled by Gordon Brown on the eve of today's Queen's speech.

The "one strike and you're out" proposal is contained in a tough summary of the speech released yesterday by the Cabinet Office. The government is also proposing to give the public clearer information, mainly via the internet, on how criminals are sentenced in local courts. Communities are to be given a bigger role in deciding what form of community punishment local criminals should be forced to undertake.

The proposals mark a break by the prime minister from his focus on the economic crisis for the past five months and suggest he knows he needs to broaden his political agenda if he is to claw back lost votes.

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The introduction of a lie detector test for benefit claimants is the most striking shift to a more populist programme, similar to Tony Blair's respect agenda.

So far, 25 local councils administering housing benefit to 500,000 claimants are using "voice risk analysis technology" to test whether a claimant is providing false information.

The government introduced the technology in Harrow, north-west London, last year, but says it plans to make the technology available nationwide. In the first three months of using the technology Harrow saved £300,000, suggesting that levels of benefit fraud may be higher than government estimates. Ministers are cracking down on benefit fraud even though it is officially at its lowest recorded level, down 66% since 2001.

The government currently withdraws 13 weeks of benefit from anyone found making a fraudulent claim twice in five years, but said yesterday it intends to tighten this process by withdrawing four weeks' benefit for first-time fraudsters.

The benefit withdrawal will be taken against both those that suffer an administrative penalty as well as those found guilty in a criminal court. Currently the Department for Work and Pensions seeks court penalties only where the alleged fraud is worth more than £2,000.

In other proposals in the Cabinet Office's paper, the power of public servants to use force may be strengthened. The paper says: "The public looks to healthcare professionals, neighbourhood wardens and teachers to deal with unacceptable behaviour in public places.

"If they are not able to fulfil that role because they are not sure the law is on their side, or because they do not see it as part of their job, that sends the wrong message about what we as a society are prepared to tolerate."

It also suggests most family intervention projects will grow so they reach 20,000 families with the most severe difficulties. The paper also proposes an alcohol code limiting "all you can drink" promotions, and setting conditions on premises in local hotspots.

Lap dancing clubs will be reclassified as sex establishments, allowing councils greater scope to close them.

James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, was criticised yesterday for plans disclosed on Monday night to tighten the requirements on lone parents and on disabled people to do more to prepare themselves for work or face mounting benefit penalties.

Under Gordon Brown, ministers have played down Blair's respect agenda, believing it played into the theme of a "broken society" promoted by David Cameron. But there have been signs of a rethink over the past three months.

The Cabinet Office paper tries to put the emphasis on fair rules in the context of the credit crunch. It says: "As everyone enters difficult economic times ... fair rules will become more important.

"If people perceive that not everyone is treated equally, that some get preferential treatment, that people who break the rules get away with it, respect for rules is undermined."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2008