Hi, I'm a welfare rights advocate and I'm looking for some information and any ideas you may have on this topic.

I'm writing a paper on the relationship between welfare and crime. I'm interested in whether some people may turn to crime if their welfare payments are reduced.

Last year our (horrible, but soon to be replaced) Tory government brought in changes to social security laws which mean that in certain circumstances people with disabilities and parents would receive significantly less money than they were receiving before or less money than others in identical circumstances.

As the amount of money paid before the cuts was not generous and left many individuals and families on the poverty line, I started wondering about how people are going to cope.

I think it's likely to result in more petty crimes and possibly an increase in domestic violence as well.

I think that it also happens at the other end - with rich individuals and companies (like Enron).

I'd like to know if you have any ideas, experiences or stats that would agree or disagree with my theory. And, also, can you tell me if there have been reductions in benefits over there and when they occurred.

Thanks.

I've had a long look at this site, it's great. And we face many of the same problems as you, but have different names for the benefits.

Tue 27-Mar-07 09:57 AM by shawn

(Edited to shorten link)

Hello from the UK!

Here are a few links to UK sites that might be good staring points. There's plenty of stuff out there and I'm sure other users of this site will have other and probably better suggestions.

http://www.crimeinfo.org.uk/topicofthemonth/index.jsp

http://www.poverty.org.uk/

http://www.cpag.org.uk/

http://www.probation.homeoffice.gov.uk/output/page31.asp

Citizens Advice (reducing offending through advice)

Also try the www.jrf.org.uk. They have produced lots of reports on poverty and social/financial exclusion - try this one on 'informal working' http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubID=793.

Thanks heaps, I'll check those out tomorrow when I'm back at work. It's 7.45pm here and extremely hot and sticky. I hope Spring is being kind to you. Although, I grew up in London and found winter was never really over until at least the beginning of May.

I've done a bit more research since I first posted and it's really interesting to look at crime rates over classes.

Some of the what I read shows that while crime rates are similar whatever the income bracket you're in, the rate of prosecutions, sentences and length/severity of sentences does relate to your social standing - so the poorer you are, the more chance you have of ending up in jail.

One of our clients had a debt for overpayments of benefits from our equivalent of the Department of Social Security (known as Centrelink, here). It was for a bit over $5,000.00 (a bit under 2,000 pounds). She went to the bank, applied for a credit card and paid the debt on the same day.

Centrelink have a policy of prosecuting debtors when the debt is over $5,000.00 and they prosecuted this very young woman who wanted to become a nurse. I don't know the result, but imagine (yeah, maybe you know already) being convicted for defrauding the state in your early 20s and having that held against you for the rest of your life. We desperately need nurses here, too. So illogical and pointless.