Welfare cheats rake in millions thanks to huge blunder
It’d be fair to say the Department of Humans Services (DHS) was in news for all the wrong reasons last year and if this latest story is anything to go by the beleaguered government organisation is gearing up for another rough one in 2018.
A report in The Daily Telegraph suggests the DHS overpaid welfare recipients to the tune of $2.84 billion through fraud or error last year. This equates to 2.4 million welfare recipients receiving an extra $1,174 each, on average.
These overpayments saw taxpayers $1.6 billion in the red.
Anonymous whistleblowers were responsible for 114,065 people being dobbed in for suspected welfare fraud, but stretched resources saw the department investigate only 13,595 of these cases and of those, only 709 were prosecuted.
Human Services Minister Michael Keenan said the Turnbull government was “committed to cracking down on welfare fraud more than ever before’’.
“Some tip-offs may refer to an investigation that is already underway (and) it sometimes receives multiple tip-offs about the same subject.’’
A DHS spokeswoman noted that not all of the debts related to out and out fraud, with some caused by, “changes in personal circumstances and people either inadvertently or deliberately providing incorrect information’’
“The recovery of a debt may not occur immediately in full or within the same financial year,’’ she added.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the DHS is doing enough for Australians who need it most? Or are too many people taking advantage of a broken system?