NEXT time you look at your pay packet after a hard week's graft, consider this -- this country's state handout swindlers are costing you at least £80 a year.

A clampdown on benefit fraud has revealed that every household in Bolton, and across the country, has to fork out at least £80 a year to cover the cost of fraudsters.

And a spate of high-profile investigations by the Benefits Agency has resulted in several well-publicised incidents of alleged benefit swindles.

Endurance Ojokolo for example, a world-champion runner who was claiming for a bad back. And Lottery winner Anthony Martin, who pretended to be wheelchair-bound, yet gleaned more than £62,000 in state handouts.

When investigators raided Martin's Stockport home, they found the wheelchair unused with flat tyres in a cupboard and his commode was being used as a TV stand.

Meanwhile Ojokolo, who sprinted her way through the World Athletic Championships, and whose bad back held up very well, is currently at the centre of an investigation into £30,000 in sickness and welfare handouts.

These are just two of the many thousands of cases said to be costing the taxpayer two billion pounds each year.

Nigel Carleton is the Department of work and Pensions (DWP) regional information officer for Bolton and says: "The DWP have set firm targets for reducing the amount of fraud and error in Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance and are aiming for a reduction of 25 per cent by the year 2004 and of 50 per cent by 2006.

"The first milestone of meeting a 10 per cent reduction has been reached 18 months ahead of schedule."

Over 24,000 people were sanctioned or prosecuted in 2000/1 -- an increase on the previous year and more than double in 1997/90.

Nigel says: "Benefit fraud is not a victimless crime.

"It affects all of us and has been estimated to cost every household in the country at least £80 per year. It is therefore taken very seriously and cases will be pursued vigorously."

Bolton is, sadly, not without its fraudsters. In August of this year a 52-year-old woman from Deane was charged with making false representations.

Her mother was taken into a care home and then the woman moved her mother into her (the daughter) own house, claiming she had separated from her husband.

She claimed benefit for two years until it was discovered that she had not left her husband and was using the address to claim benefit to which she was not entitled.

The total claimed came to £6000. She received an eight week prison sentence.

The latest phase of the DWP's advertising campaign started on Sunday, September 9 and runs until March 2002.

Its overall aim is to positively reinforce honest behaviour and create a climate of intolerance of benefit fraud by undermining its social acceptability.

Nigel Carleton says: "Since April 2001, the Verification framework has been operating and this enables local authorities to make tougher checks on all housing benefit claimants before payments are made.

"Over 360 local authorities have signed up to the department's 'do not redirect' campaign stopping housing benefit fraudsters from giving a false name and address."

In addition to this, a national fraud intelligence unit has been set up to ensure that all available information is used strategically to steer the campaign in the right direction. It will also help fraud investigators concentrate on the most fruitful cases.

Last year, a 49-year-old Deane woman appeared before Bolton Crown Court charged with working while claiming benefit.

She had been working under another name while employed as a care worker and had been claiming benefit for 10 years, even though she started work six months after she initially claimed her first benefit payment.

The total cost of her claims over a 10-year period -- and to the Bolton taxpayer -- was £32,000. She was jailed for nine months.

Nigel says: "This particular investigation arose following anonymous information, and I would urge anyone with information about alleged benefit cheats to call the National Benefit Fraud Hotline. Callers are not required to give their names so it all remains completely anonymous..

"From 2003 we will be securing the system further by paying more benefits directly into bank accounts.

"Not only is this approach cheaper, it will also save over £100m a year resulting from order book and giro fraud.

"We are tightening the system and making sure that, from the very first claim, the right benefits go to the right people."

He added: "In addition to any penalty imposed by a court, we are diligent in recovering debt and will always ensure that people pay back what they have stolen from the benefit system. Fraud in Bolton In March this year, a 46-year-old man from Halliwell appeared before Bolton Crown Court charged with three accounts of falsifying documents, two counts of obtaining money by deception with 177 other offences taken into consideration.

He had worked for three years as a security guard while claiming income support and incapacity benefit. The total loss to public funds was £23,136. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

In September this year, the Department received information that a 28-year-old woman from Great Lever was cashing an order book that did not belong to her. She was charged with obtaining property by deception, attempted deception and theft.

Fraud officers then watched a 15-year-old girl cashing the order book at the post office. It transpired the 28-year-old was signing the orders and the teenager was cashing them. The woman received a 120-hour community penalty and had to pay £70 in costs.

National Benefit Fraud Hotline (a free number) is 0800 854 440. Callers do NOT need to give their names.