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Abstract

Fraud is considered one of the most commonly experienced crime in the United Kingdom, and it is claimed that fewer twenty per cent of incidents regarding fraud are reported.
The purpose of this dissertation was to explore perceptions and knowledge of the public in relation to benefit fraud. Using any relevant literature, the research looked at what is the current problem with fraud why people commit fraud what is the financial impact and what is the public perception of benefit fraud.
A survey was conducted to investigate the public’s knowledge of fraud and benefit fraud, the participants were recruited using the convenience sampling method, which involved 29 participants, the survey was distributed via a link on social media and the University of Portsmouth Moodle site using JISC online surveys. The results were analysed and were identified as qualitative data and quantitative data sets.
The research found that the majority of respondents understood what fraud and benefit fraud entailed. It was also noted that the majority of respondents believed that high earners were more likely to commit general fraud, but low earners were more likely to commit benefit fraud. However, during the research it was established that certain sanctionable benefits such as carers allowance have not been measured for fraud in over twenty years, leaving any public perception on the actual cost around this type of fraud open to interpretation, which could have been clouded by the media coverage.
The results could infer that there is little knowledge about benefit fraud and the sanctionable benefits, and that there is a difference in punishment of the offender dependent upon their socio economic status. It should be noted that considering a jury is made up of members of the public it would be beneficial that there was a knowledge of the crime and sanctionable benefits.

Course: Risk and Security Management - BSc (Hons) - C1565

Date Deposited: 2020-11-23

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13614.html