Benefit cheats blame the cheated.

As unclaimed benefits mount up in the treasury, the annual trawl among OAPs and others, who qualify on low incomes and have not claimed, is on again. It harvests enough work to keep the sizeable workforce and political bosses busy for another year.

Official statistics show inflation on basic living costs, which pensioners struggle to meet on unlinked pensions, is over 8%. <statistics.gov.uk> So there are still huge shoals out there to provide good fishing next year.

Of those caught in the net this time, many will fall back into the shallow water of poverty, finding the system too difficult to understand and easy to fall foul of. You must advise the authorities of any change in your affairs affecting your benefits.

Heavily publicised investigators go into homes when they think their income or assets have increased and have not been advised to them. They have all their previous financial details to hand and know when accounts are healthiest.

They can come in at the beginning of the month when your pension account balance is highest, just before you withdraw the payment for that big bill you saved for, and your Halifax nest egg, which you got when they went private and saved to pay for a new roof or hip joint if needed, has risen in value.

These are assets now and add up to an increase over what 'they' have in their little black book and an amount is deductible from benefits. It is based on a higher per cent rate than any you get. It is to account for the theoretical interest you are gaining from them as income.

When all but those they are dealing with have record amounts of disposable income, this mockery could have been righted, but Tony and Gordon preferred to keep the screws on the needy for another decade. If everybody on benefits made a daily report to the authority on the up and down movements of the tiny provisions they make for possible serious needs, the departments would be in even more chaos than they are now.

New Labour have had more than enough time to sort out this sad state of affairs, but they have been happy to leave it as it is; a healthy source of employment.