Centrelink Cracking Down On Dole Fraudsters

Centrelink has started the new year off with a bang, announcing a taskforce to crack down on dole cheaters who lie about their status to claim more Centrelink benefits.

The initiative, called Taskforce Integrity, aims to fight for billions of wrongfully gifted welfare payments. One of their main focuses is couples who lie about their relationship status in order to get more generous dole payments.

Already welfare cops have seen patterns of fraud emerging within welfare recipients, with people regularly telling one government agency that they are single to get a higher dole payment, while telling another their real relationship status to get reduced health insurance premiums or bigger residences through public housing. The reason behind the lie is that the Newstart Allowance, what we’d call the dole, for singles who are unemployed is $523.40 a fortnight, while couples who live together get $472.60 a fortnight each.

So if you’ve ever fibbed to Centrelink before, now is the time to come clean because the fuzz is closing in. Human Services Minister Stuart Robert said that welfare recipients who were lying about their situation should consider themselves on notice.

“The majority of welfare recipients do the right thing,” he said. “However the reality is there are those who deliberately try to game the system. These people need to understand they are stealing from their neighbours, including those in the community who are genuinely in need.”

Just in the last financial year the federal government processed 671,000 new claims for the dole. At around the same time, Taskforce Integrity ran a pilot program in Sydney’s Rockdale last year and claimed $2.2 million in debts owed to the Commonwealth, as well as referring 36 cases of suspected fraud to be investigated.

The group also undertook 2,786 compliance reviews and identified 590 cases where too much welfare had been paid to individuals by the government.

The message from the government, and from Stuart Robert, to people who are cheating the system is this:

“If you are a member of a couple you must declare this if you are receiving welfare payments.”

This is true for people on the Newstart Allowance, Disability Support Pension, Youth Allowance and Parenting Payment. In all of these situations your partner’s income and assets must be taken into account so the government can assess how much welfare you are fairly entitled to.

Now that the effectiveness of Taskforce Integrity has been proven in the real world, the group has begun operations in areas where suspected welfare-fraud is at its highest in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. However it is expected that the program will expand throughout the other states as the year progresses.

This is a high priority item for the new cost-saving government, with projections indicating that $1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars could be saved by eradicating the fraudsters. Remember that the process for changing your relationship status is a breeze compared to the complex and financially stressful experience of becoming a listed Centrelink fraudster.