DWP PIP cuts blamed on likes of benefit cheat mum as she's forced to pay back £20k
People have slammed the 'audacity' of a benefit cheat mum who falsely claimed more than £20,000.
Sara Morris duped the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) into thinking she was so unwell she struggled to leave the house or look after herself.
The mum-of-three was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2005 and exaggerated its effects to claim PIP in 2020.
The 50-year-old said she could not stand at the cooker and found it difficult to get out of the bath unaided.
READ MORE: Midlands area where homeowners saw £45,000 wiped from value of properties
READ MORE: Dad who experienced 'terrible back pain' died nine days after going to hospital
Morris also claimed she was so anxious when she left the house that even a trip to the pharmacy to collect her medication left her in tears.
However, in reality she was running multiple 5km and 10km races and even posted pictures of herself competing.
She had failed to tell the DWP that she was a member of the Stone Master Marathoners and was overpaid £20,528.83 between October 20, 2020 and April 25, 2023.
Morris, of Walton Way, Stone, admitted dishonestly making a false statement to obtain a benefit and was jailed for eight months in July 2024.
During a recent proceeds of crime hearing, Judge Graeme Smith was told Morris benefited from her criminality to the tune of £22,386.02 and the available amount was £60,000.
He ordered Morris to repay £22,386.02 within 28 days or serve nine months in prison in default.
And BirminghamLive readers have slammed the mum's actions saying that people like her are the reason PIP payments are so difficult to obtain.
Karen said: "People like this are the reason genuine disabled are being affected today."
Victoria added: "Because of people like her we [are] going to suffer."
"I'd laugh at the audacity but it's really not funny," Claire added.
Wayne wrote: "How on earth did she manage to get away with it. With my arthritis and other issues I provided medical proof from consultants, doctors, medical exams, blood tests, MRIs and X-rays.
"Did she manage to fool all the latter medical evidence or did no one at the DWP bother to check?"
Lisa added: "So she should pay every penny back."
"And this is the reason why it is so hard to get PIP," Kimberley said.
She added: "I had my first two rejected so I had to get a disability professional to help me with the forms. I struggle walking because of my asthma and old injury."
A court had heard how investigators carried out surveillance on Morris from February 5 to February 20, 2023.
Prosecutor Regan Walters said: "On February 5 she took part in a five-mile race and was seen running without assistance and showed no signs of balance problems.
"On February 11 she was seen running with the Stone Master Marathoners and showed no signs of discomfort."
Morris competed in 73 races between May 2019 and December 2022. During an interview in May 2023, Morris said her MS had worsened and she was suffering from fatigue.
She confirmed she had been a member of Stone Master Marathoners running club prior to making her claim and filled in her PIP form on her worst day, StokeonTrentLive reports.
Paul Cliff, defending, said the 'severity' of her condition's 'impact ebbs and flows to a degree'.
He said: "But it is accepted by her that the application did not give the full picture. It crossed over into the realms of dishonesty."
The court heard how Morris's marriage broke down in the spring of 2020 and she did not enjoy a lavish lifestyle as a result of her fraudulent claim, Mr Cliff said.
He added: "She lost her home because of financial problems and was struggling to keep her head above water financially.
"The application did not give the full picture. She did say running was one of the ways she tried to manage her multiple sclerosis.
"She has found it difficult to come to terms with her dishonesty."
Morris must also pay a £187 surcharge.
At an earlier hearing, the court was told that Morris would not have been awarded PIP had she been honest about her condition.
Mr Walters said: "The benefit was paid on the basis she would notify the DWP of any changes which affected the amount of benefits.
"The DWP obtained photographs of the defendant and some Facebook posts taken by Morris herself.
"She had been taking part in marathons, races and orienteering.
"The first photo was taken a month after she signed her initial claim form.
"The defendant can be seen to have been taking part in a competitive run two days prior to making that initial claim.
"At no point was information received from the defendant reporting any improvement in her condition during her claim for PIP.
"The defendant reported receiving assistance in almost every aspect of her life.
"On some days her stress and anxiety led to her being housebound."
She added she used a walking stick when she felt tired and unsteady.
"The defendant exaggerated her issues throughout the claim process."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Were the No Kings protests the largest single-day demonstration in American history?
The scale of last weekend's 'No Kings' protests is now becoming clearer, with one estimate suggesting that Saturday was among the biggest ever single-day protests in US history. Working out exactly where the protest ranks compared with similar recent events has been a project of G Elliott Morris, a data journalist who runs the Substack Strength in Numbers, calculated turnout between 4 million and 6 million, which would be 1.2-1.8% of the US population. This could exceed the previous record in recent history, when between 3.3 million and 5.6 million people showed up at the 2017 Women's March to rally against Trump's misogynistic rhetoric. Morris estimated the No Kings Day protest turnout in two steps. First, his team gathered data at events for as many locations as possible, defaulting to tallies published in local newspapers. Where that wasn't available, they relied on estimates from organizers and attenders themselves. To come up with a rough approximation of nationwide numbers, he then estimated the attendance in each unreported protest would be equal to the median of the attendance in places where data did exist. 'That's a tough approximation, but at least an empirical one,' Morris wrote in an email. 'We use the median instead of the average to control for outliers, [such as the fact that] big cities pull the average up, but most events are not huge urban protests.' Morris stressed that the Strength in Numbers tally remains unofficial, and he hopes that researchers will 'build' on his data when they conduct more studies. But his estimation is similar to that made by Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, the progressive non-profit that organized the event. He estimated that 5 million people across the globe took to the streets. If 1.8% of the US adult population showed up to protest, it sends a signal to other people that you can stand up, too Omar Wasow Not everyone is ready to call it the biggest protest ever. Jeremy Pressman of the Crowd Counting Consortium, a joint Harvard University/University of Connecticut project that estimates political crowds, told USA Today it would take 'some time' to get an official tally. Meanwhile Steven Cheung, Trump's director of communications, unsurprisingly called the protests 'a complete and utter failure with minuscule attendance' on X. (No Kings took place on Donald Trump's birthday, which coincided with a parade the president threw in celebration of the US army's 250th anniversary.) Omar Wasow, an assistant professor in UC Berkeley's department of political science, told the Guardian that the demonstration was 'without question, among the largest single-day protests in history'. Wasow compared protest movements to standing ovations given at a theater. 'We see a cascade effect: if one person stands after the curtain drops, then more follow,' he said. 'If 1.8% of the US adult population showed up to protest on Saturday, those are the people who stood up to clap first. It sends a signal to all these other people that you can stand up, too.' The 1963 March on Washington, where Dr Martin Luther King Jr made his famous 'I have a dream' speech was at the time one of the largest protests in history, with up to a half a million people in attendance. It was dwarfed in size by the first Earth Day protests in 1970, in which 20 million people helped spark the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. 'At the time this was about 10% of the US population, possibly the largest we will ever realistically see – unless the political environment deteriorates significantly, prompting more backlash,' Morris said. In 1986 at the Hands Across America fundraiser, an estimated 5 million Americans formed a human chain to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness (each person was asked to donate $10, though many participants didn't end up paying and the politics of the Coca-Cola-sponsored event were murky). More than a million people took to the streets in 2006 for a boycott called 'A Day Without Immigrants' in protest of stricter immigration laws. Polls taken during the summer of 2020 found that between 15 and 26 million Americans protested against the murder of George Floyd during the month of June (though day-by-day numbers were smaller). Gloria J Browne-Marshall, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and author of A Protest History of the United States, said that it was difficult to compare crowd sizes for various protests, especially ones that take place over the course of several days and span various locations. 'There are different processes that have been used over the years, from eyeballing things to actually counting the number of people per square mile,' she said. Related: 'No Kings' protests stir US as Trump celebrates birthday with military parade – in pictures In the days following No Kings, an idea put forth by the political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan called the 3.5% rule spurred social media discussion. Chenoweth, a Harvard professor and Stephan, a political scientist who covers nonviolent movements, studied 323 revolutionary campaigns around the world that took place from 1900 to 2006. They found that all nonviolent movements that had the support of at least 3.5% of a population always succeeded in triggering change. No Kings, with its massive turnout, could be seen as a turning point. There are caveats to this rule, which was published in the team's 2011 book Why Civil Resistance Works. 'The 3.5% rule is descriptive, not prescriptive – and has been revised significantly since being originally published to allow for exceptions,' Morris wrote. 'Chenoweth now is clear that hitting 3.5% does not guarantee success, especially in political regimes where change is harder, and that movements can accomplish their goals with much smaller mobilization, through things like media coverage and alliances with elites.' Organizers and attenders of No Kings feel invigorated enough to continue the demonstrations, with another round of coordinated protests to fall on 17 July, the fifth anniversary of the death of John Lewis, the congressman and civil rights leader. But they admit there are limits to these events. 'We're not going to win if a lot of people show up at a protest one day,' Levin said. 'We need people actually taking democracy seriously, and that's not going to be done through a top-down action. It has to be done from the bottom-up. When pro-democracy movements succeed, it's because of a broad-based, ideological, diverse, geographically-dispersed, grassroots organizing – not just mobilizing.' • This article was amended on 19 June 2025 to clarify that G Elliott Morris used the median, not the medium, to approximate nationwide protest numbers.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
DWP makes four big changes for single Universal Credit claimants aged 25 and over
The Department for Work and Pensions has announced four big changes for claimants who are single and aged 25 and over. Four million people are set to get a £725 boost with the bump in rates of Universal Credit. The shake-up from the Labour Party government could see millions of households benefit from the hikes. The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, published on Wednesday, June 18, announced changes that will increase the standard Universal Credit allowance above inflation for four years, starting from 2026. Single claimants aged 25 and over, will see their rates increasing by 2.3% in 2026 to 2027 and then 3.1% in 2027 to 2028 and then 4.0% in 2028 to 2029, followed by 4.8% in 2029 to 2030, which is the end of this Parliament. READ MORE: Six-bed HMO plan gets the go-ahead from Solihull planners READ MORE: Handsworth crash victim Muhammad Qasim, 29, was over drink-drive limit and speeding - inquest READ MORE Millions of UK drivers urged to spend £9 before end of June James Watson-O'Neill, chief executive of disability charity Sense, said he was "especially alarmed" by plans to cut the Universal Credit uplift "for those with the greatest barriers to work". "Many of the disabled people and families we support have told us they're frightened, uncertain how they'll afford food, heating, other basic needs without this vital support," he added. The DWP press release boasts that: "The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill will provide 13-weeks of additional financial security to existing claimants affected by changes to the PIP daily living component, including those who their lose eligibility to Carers Allowance and the carer's element of Universal Credit. "The 13-week additional protection will give people who will be affected by the changes time to adapt, access new, tailored employment support, and plan for their future once they are reassessed and their entitlement ends. "This transitional cover is one of the most generous ever and more than three times the length of protection provided for the transition from DLA to PIP." It is a: "Bill to make provision to alter the rates of the standard allowance, limited capability for work element and limited capability for work and work-related activity element of universal credit and the rates of income-related employment and support allowance, and to restrict eligibility for the personal independence payment."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Welfare reform legislation to be debated next month, MPs told
Proposed legislation to reform the welfare system will be debated by MPs for the first time next month, Commons Leader Lucy Powell has announced. MPs are also expected to vote on the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill on July 1, when it receives its second reading in the Commons. The Government has faced backlash from some Labour MPs over the 'damaging disability benefit cuts', which it has said could save up to £5 billion a year. Ms Powell set the date for the Bill's second reading during business questions on Thursday. Labour MP Neil Duncan-Jordan has accused the Government of 'rushing through' the Bill, adding: 'This isn't something I'm prepared to support.' Ministers are likely to face a Commons stand-off with backbenchers over their plans, with dozens of Labour MPs last month saying the proposals were 'impossible to support'. The reforms – aimed at encouraging more people off sickness benefits and into work – are set to include the tightening of criteria for personal independence payment (Pip), which is the main disability benefit, as well as a cut to the sickness-related element of universal credit (UC) and delayed access to only those aged 22 and over. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the legislation 'marks the moment we take the road of compassion, opportunity and dignity'. She added: 'Our social security system is at a crossroads. Unless we reform it, more people will be denied opportunities, and it may not be there for those who need it.' In what could be seen as an attempt to head off some opposition, the legislation will give existing claimants a 13-week period of financial support. The Department for Work and Pensions said this will apply to those affected by changes to the Pip daily living component, including those who lose their eligibility to Carers Allowance and the carer's element of UC. But campaigners, including disability equality charity Scope, said the longer transition period, up from an originally expected four weeks, 'will only temporarily delay a cut and disabled people will continue to be living with extra costs when it comes to an end'. As the Bill was formally introduced to the Commons on Wednesday, and the question was asked as to what the next date for debate will be, former Labour MP John McDonnell, who now sits as an independent for Hayes and Harlington, could be heard to say 'Never'. Mr Duncan-Jordan, MP for Poole, is one of the members who has urged ministers to withdraw the cuts, which he has argued will 'make things worse' for disabled people. Speaking to the PA news agency, he said: 'It's clear the Government are rushing through this change before MPs have received all the necessary impact assessments that they need to make a decision. 'The Bill lays out how large numbers of disabled people are going to be made poorer. This isn't something I'm prepared to support.' Earlier this week, Mr Duncan-Jordan had said: 'The Government will only withdraw its damaging disability benefit cuts if Labour MPs make clear they will vote against them. 'The so-called concessions that have been suggested are nowhere near enough to undo the damage that is being proposed. The facts are undeniable: these cuts won't create jobs, they'll only push three million people deeper into hardship.' The latest data, published on Tuesday, showed that more than 3.7 million people in England and Wales are claiming Pip, with teenagers and young adults making up a growing proportion. Pip is a benefit aimed at helping with extra living costs if someone has a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability and difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around because of their condition. Data for Pip claimants begins in January 2019, when the number stood at 2.05 million. An impact assessment published alongside Wednesday's Bill introduction confirmed previously published estimates that changes to Pip entitlement rules could see about 800,000 people lose out, with an average loss of £4,500 per year. Ms Kendall previously said there are 1,000 new Pip awards every day – 'the equivalent of adding a city the size of Leicester every single year'. The impact assessment also confirmed a previous estimate that some 250,000 more people, including 50,000 children, are likely to fall into relative poverty after housing costs in 2029/2030, although the Government repeated that this does not take into account the potentially positive impact of £1 billion annual funding by then for measures to support people into work. Changes to UC are expected to see an estimated 2.25 million current recipients of the health element impacted, with an average loss of £500 per year. But the Government said around 3.9 million households not on the UC health element are expected to have an average annual gain of £265 from the increase in the standard UC allowance. While all of the Bill applies to England and Wales, only the UC changes apply to Scotland. The Government said there are equivalent provisions to legislate for Northern Ireland included in the Bill.
