What if you work cash-in-hand, AND claim benefits?
Same as working and fiddling your tax? 😉
Here’s a thought: How many companies/individuals don’t properly fully declare all their earnings, and therefore don’t pay the tax they are legally obliged to? I dare say, there are many, many people/firms that do this. And I bet that the money ‘lost’ to the Treasury is far, far more than the cost of illegally-claimed benefits.
Yet someone defrauding the system in this way, can still appear conscientious, law-abiding and honest, even though they are not.
Let’s face it, almost everyone is just out for the best deal they can get. If you can get away with not declaring a few quid, and saving on that, then ‘where’s the harm’? And most people, if they could get away with it, probably would.
The truth is, there are far more people fiddling tax, than those who get away with illegally claiming benefits.
Is tax ‘evasion’/’avoidance’ morally any better than benefit fraud? Not really- it’s all theft. It’s just that tax dodging is easier to cover up.