Pension fraud shock over fears UK shelling out millions in fake benefits to YEMEN

IT IS a country on the verge of collapse, torn apart by war, famine and the world’s worst cholera outbreak.

YemenGETTY

Yemen has been devastated by war in recent years

So it came as a surprise when the Department for Work and Pensions told an MP that Yemen is today home to 30 British pensioners, all aged over 100, who are living out their golden years while claiming full state pensions.

When Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, West Yorkshire, delved into the House of Commons library, parliamentary eyebrows were raised even further.

Not only is the life expectancy in Yemen a youthful 64 but, according to figures provided by the Institute for Public Policy Research, the Arab state hosts 2,667 UK citizens – while the DWP is forking out for 2,870 state pensioners.

The only explanation, according to Mr Davies, is that the DWP is being subjected to systematic fraud.

YemenGETTY - STOCK

The life expectancy in Yemen a youthful 64

I asked this question because I felt that benefits and pensions is an area particularly susceptible to fraud

Philip Davies

And that fraud, assuming each of the 30 pensioners is claiming a full state pension under old rules, could account for as much as £3million of taxpayers’ money since 2010 alone.

The revelations emerged after Mr Davies asked how many people over 100 years old receive the state pension in each country outside the UK.

The answer from Under-Secretary Guy Opperman, Tory MP for Hexham in Northumberland, contained mostly expected answers, including 210 in Australia, 140 in Canada, 70 in Jamaica and 100 in the US.

But the Yemen figure “stuck out like a sore thumb”.

“I asked this question because I felt that benefits and pensions is an area particularly susceptible to fraud,” Mr Davies said last night.

“And I have to say the Yemen figure stuck out. Are there really 30 centenarians claiming a British state pension in Yemen? So I did some more research. First of all, Yemen is not known for people living to a ripe old age. Then I was given the figures for the number of UK citizens living in Yemen. In 2010 there were 2,667. But the figures also revealed there were 2,860 pensioners that year receiving UK state pensions.

“It’s the only country in the world where there are more British state pension claimants than there are British citizens.

“According to these figures, which are on record in the House of Commons library, not only does it mean that every single British citizen living in Yemen is a pensioner, but there are an extra 200 ghost claimants too.”

Despite its long association with Britain, Yemen has been remarkable for a decade in the number of British pensioners it claims to house.

YemenGETTY - STOCK

Yemen has been remarkable for a decade in the number of British pensioners it claims to house

Under the old, two-part systems, pensioners can claim a maximum state pension of £282.30 per week, or £13,548 a year.

It means that the DWP has paid a total of more than £272million in taxpayers’ money to British pensions claimants in Yemen since 2010.

“It just doesn’t smell right,” said Mr Davies last night. “Officials and ministers in the department should be over this like a rash, making sure that UK taxpayers’ money isn’t being obtained by fraud and deception.”

DWP sources last night conceded that “abroad fraud” for benefits amounted to £94million last year alone.

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?