Our day was cheered up some what with the news that benefit cheats are going to be put through lie detector tests in fifteen of the UK’s councils. The fraudsters get away with up to £400 million of taxpayers money a year.

 The system, which analyses speech patterns to catch the culprits, has already been trialed by seven councils and has already saved them hundreds of thousands of pounds.

 Critics say that genuine claimants may be put off applying for help for fear of being wrongly labeled a fraudster but surely if you have nothing to hide, what’s the problem?

 The equipment detects changes in the sound of the claimant’s voice which could indicate they are not telling the truth about their circumstances. Staff can then able for further evidence to support any suspicious claims.

 Harrow Council has been using the technology for a year and has saved £420,000 partly because a third of the people had received a phone call quizzing them about there need for benefits.

 More than 90% of people claiming benefits were honest, but “often people changed their stories part way through the conversation” said Harrow councilor Paul Osborne. He reckoned that some of the claimants realized their answers didn’t add up and chickened out for fear of being prosecuted for fraud.

The system seems very simple; an operator sits in front of a computer, and makes phone calls to claimants. He or she asks set questions, and the screen flashes red if the software detects a change in the modulation of the voice which could indicate the claimant is not telling the truth.

 The lie detectors will be rolled out nationally, with the government claiming they should save the taxpayers millions of pounds a year with no mention of how much the scheme costs….