If the punishment for deliberately claiming more in benefits than you’re entitled to is simply to repay the benefits then there’s no incentive to not do it. If you get caught then you’re no worse off than if you’d not broken the law so why not do it?

Having said that, if the punishment for accidentally claiming more than you’re entitled to is so harsh then that is unfair.

I’d imagine that the process for both of the scenarios is the same but it definitely should have some human element in it where intent is taken into account.

The system should protect people from that by having proper checks before the money is paid out.