WELFARE fraud

The mundane reality of fraud made an appearance today. A report (read here) was launched by a Dail committee in which the author, Roisin Shortall TD, said that last year €476 million was saved through "anti-fraud mechanisms" and that the "target" for 2009 is €600 million. She argued that the schemes most open to abuse such as payments for single mothers and job-seekers' allowances should be more closely monitored. There doesn't appear to be any evidence in the report of concentrated efforts by crime gangs to defraud the system as has happened in the in the UK. Usually the fraud is carried out by ordinary people who forget to tell the authorities about a change in their status - such as the Dublin woman who collected her dead mother's pension for 12 years (read it). Then there's the 'lone' parents whose partner hasn't really left at all - not surprisingly they are difficult cases to prove.