§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether his Department counts as income for purposes of the calculation of social security benefit money from crime; and what his Department's attitude is when it subsequently discovers a social security claimant has been making undeclared income out of criminal activities, towards prosecution for defrauding his Department of social security benefits to which he was not entitled.
§ Mr. OrmeIn principle, full account would be taken of income from criminal action when assessing entitlement to means-tested benefits, but in practice information about such income is not available when benefit is assessed.
If clear evidence of undisclosed income from criminal activities was obtained, it would be used in the same way as evidence of other undisclosed earnings or income.