Glasgow social worker pocketed £67k through benefit claims

A social worker who illegally claimed £67,247 in benefits over 10 years has been jailed for 16 months.

Deborah Carmichael submitted a claim for mental and physical illnesses in 2004, but failed to notify the Department of Work and Pensions that she’d returned to work in 2005.

The Glasgow City Council employee continued to receive benefits, pocketing thousands from August 2005 to March 2016. 

The 47-year-old, from Knightswood, was jailed yesterday at Glasgow Sheriff Court after admitting ‘knowingly failing to give prompt notification’. 

Sheriff Bill Totten said Carmichael ‘must have been well aware’ of the seriousness of her crime but reduced her sentence from 20 months.

Carmichael first submitted her claim to the Department for Work and Pensions in 2004 and claimed until 2016 despite returning to work in 2005

‘You must understand the serious nature of this offence,’ he said.

‘There can be no alternative but to impose a prison sentence.

‘I sympathise, as any right-thinking person should, with the very real problems and difficulties you have experienced.’