DSS to set its sights on cheating hauliers
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by Karen Miles • Hauliers who encourage their drivers to fraudulently draw benefits to supplement meagre wages are to be targeted by the Department of Social Security.
The DSS is setting up a telephone hotline asking employees to inform on cheating employers. Last week a hotline was launched allowing the public to anonymously report benefits fraudsters—it has already received 13,000 calls.
The second hotline, specifically targeting employers, will target road transport with other well known benefit-cheating sectors, including construction, catering, pub and taxi businesses.
The DSS interest in hauliers was fuelled by the nationwide check, Operation Allsorts, which showed that up to one in six drivers could be illegally claiming the dole (CM 11-17 July). "This obviously showed there is a problem in this area and we want to address this," says the DSS.
The DSS is particularly interested in hauliers who pay their drivers in cash, evading tax and national insurance pay ments. During Operation Allsorts 5,320 drivers were stopped and 401 were found to be claiming benefits fraudulently. The police believe this number will double once the drivers' circumstances are checked in detail.
Any hauliers found encouraging drivers to make illegal claims could lose their 0-licences, warns senior Traffic Commissioner Michael Betts.
"If I was satisfied that an operator knowingly encouraged it then I would wish to question his good repute," he says.