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Over the past ten years, the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) budget has gone from £5.7billion to £8.8billion a year. The number of drug addicts and alcoholics claiming the £60-a-week payment has risen five-fold, from 3,000 in 1997 to nearly 17,000 last year. The claim of 'back pain - not specified' has gone from 56,000 to 123,000. The number of deaf people in the UK has almost tripled from 13,000 to 34,600.
You couldn't make this up - this guy claimed £43,000 in disability allowance!
Jon Stentiford was able to collect Disability Living Allowance at the same time as holding the title of Cornwall's Strongest Man. The 36-year-old, of St Neot, pocketed £43,000 after claiming he had a bad back. The 6ft 4in bodybuilder began receiving the benefit for sciatica - a condition that can cause lower back pain - in 2002.
Like anyone else with half a brain and an ounce of compassion I would like to triple the allowance given to genuinely disabled people and make their life as comfortable as it can possibly be.
But claiming unemployment is at record lows whilst 2.8 million claim the dole by other means is just a fraud.
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