The Sun: Campaing against benefit frauds when tax fraud is 10x worse

The Sun has today launched its campaign against tax evasion, vilifying those, usually the very richest in society, whose scams cost the taxpayer a total of over £15 billion a year (pdf).

Hang on, sorry.

The Sun has today launched its campaign against benefit fraud, vilifying those, usually the very poorest in society, whose scams cost the taxpayer a total of over £1 billion a year (pdf).

Tom Newton Dunn, the paper’s political editor, writes:

"THE SUN today calls on readers to help end the benefits frauds that cost the country a record £1.2 BILLION last year.
We urge Brits to shop the cheats stealing from honest taxpayers when the nation can least afford it.
Campaigning Iain Duncan Smith last night backed The Sun’s crusade to end the scandalous benefits fraud crippling the country…"


The decision of the Sun to hone in on benefit fraud is an odd one. If, as they suggest, the £1.2 billion a year lost to deliberate fraud is ‘crippling the country’, then tax evasion, which costs the treasury over ten times that, must be outright killing it.

The annual fraud indicator (pdf) estimates a £15 billion loss through tax fraud – deliberate underpayment of taxes. And rather than their targets being people who are ill-placed to defend themselves against accusations, the archetypal tax evader is Conrad Black – rich, above the law, and with full knowledge of what they are doing.

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