In late 2007 the Department for Work and Pensions began it's war on benefits cheats by introducing n inventive new method of rooting out liars, lie detectors!

Much like in the picture above of a traditional polygraph the new telephone system being piloted in 13 counties in the UK can detect the telltale signs that you are lying by the tone of your voice and other miniscule details such as stuttering and even trivial things like you voice wobbling.

Whilst it may be considered a waste of money in most people's eyes it is worth noting that benefits fraud accounts for £700 million losses from the government last year alone. This new system has proved worthwhile too, in one of the pilot countie, Harrow, the Voice Risk Analysis technology has helped save over £300,000 in benefits money. 12% of claimants (119) were flagged as high risk by the software and it was found that 43 of them were improperly filed.

The good news is that for people who are legitimately claiming then the whole process of claiming is becoming quicker as they are able to spend time investigating people who are worthy of suspicion and not legitimate claimants.

The scheme is due to end in May this year and hopefully will get rolled out nationally, like the adverts keep reminding us commiting benefit fraud is going to become more harder and costly if you get caught.