British Government and Social Security Fraud and Abuse

Studying the change in the government’s perception of, and responses to, fraud and abuse of the social security system, this book analyses how fraud appeared as a big political issue and the attitude that preceded this, dating this change to the 1970s.Based on research in government papers, the volume analyses and shows how and why early attempts to place a data-based, preventative dome over the system were rejected by the Thatcher government, in favour of a heightened use of traditional methods of detecting fraudsters. The book then discusses how and why the data-based methods rejected in the 1970s were adopted in the 1990s, and how their use has both broadened and deepened in this century.The British Government and Social Security Fraud and Abuse will be beneficial to post-graduate students of modern British history, politics and sociology.