It's not just wheelie bins that Nottingham's scammers have got their greedy little eyes on, if the numbers are to be believed, Nottingham is by far and away the region's hotbed for Blue Badge fraud.
A report (pdf, page 12) going to the next Audit Committee meeting gives a number of interesting details of fraud against NCC, one of which is that, in 2012/13, 355 Blue Badge fraud cases were detected. The Midlands and East of England average was 18 cases. In other words, NCC is said to have nearly 20 times the average regional Blue Badge fraud rate.
Sounds legit...
We know that assessments for Blue Badges is carried out by an 'independent' private medical company (as mentioned in this 2011 portfolio decision on the related matter of Mobility Citycard examinations) and they may be carrying out their duties with Atos like aplomb. I also suspect a certain statistical sleight of hand, such as assuming that every Blue Badge renewal found to no longer qualify is put in the fraud pile.
I think local media are planning on looking into it so I'll let them do the work and see if any explanation better than NCC seriously shafting its disabled citizens comes forth.
No comments:
Post a Comment