Money Box

Long lost, wealthy relatives who’ve sadly died but for whom you “might” be the next of kin – too good to be true or the real thing? We explain how to spot the difference and how to tell the good heir hunters from the bad. A disabled mother of two is being denied Healthy Start vouchers for her young children because she is on the wrong benefit. The vouchers provide more than a thousand pounds over four years to help low-income mothers buy milk and food for their growing children. But disabled people on a benefit called Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) only get the vouchers while they are pregnant.The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales shows a massive rise in the amount of fraud being carried out against victims – up by more than a third to 5.1m cases between October 2020 and September 2021.Inflation is already at levels not seen for a generation and this week food poverty campaigner Jack Monroe highlighted how she believes the real figure can be even worse for people on low incomes. So how was inf