Government reveals that they received 90,000 tip-offs about welfare cheats
The Australian government has revealed that they received more than 90,000 tip offs from members of the public about welfare cheats.
According to news.com.au, the Department of Human Services received this number of tip offs from the public about welfare, Medicare and Child Support fraud in the 2019/19 financial year.
This has led to 200 investigations.
Federal government frontbencher Stuart Robert is thrilled with the results, as it means that more than $100 million has been raked back from welfare cheats.
“Ninety thousand tip offs tells me the average Australian has had a gut full of it,” Mr Robert told Sky News.
“It’s not about defrauding the government ... it’s actually taking money from the next door neighbour and the lovely lady across the street who pays tax, that’s who you are stealing from.”
Mr Robert said that 49 cases were now before the courts.
In one case, a worker was jailed after lying about their income by $47,000 and another had to pay back $14,000 in overpayments.