WELFARE cheats, tax rorters and crooked public servants are ripping off more than $600 million a year from taxpayers.  

More than 800,000 incidents of fraud were recorded by Centrelink, Customs and other government agencies in an audit by the Australian Institute of Criminology.

With thousands of families struggling, the cost of welfare fraud rose by 10 per cent to $489 million. And hundreds of public servants were investigated for misusing credit cards, stealing equipment and illegally passing on confidential information.  

Young people ripping off the dole and single mothers on parental payments have emerged as the biggest - and costliest - groups of fraudsters.

As the Gillard Government prepares to unveil a harsh Budget in May, the Institute says just $139 million - or 23 per cent - of the stolen money was recovered. After months of negotiations, News Limited has gained exclusive access to the Institute's landmark report, Fraud against the Commonwealth.


The audit shows "reported" fraud against the Commonwealth reached $589 million in 2008/09.

Its authors say fraud is being underestimated, suggesting the real cost to taxpayers is likely to be much higher.

Just more than 700,000 incidents of social security fraud were reported in the audit of 2008/09 - the height of the global financial meltdown. Other agencies also were kept busy fighting the national crime wave. Just more than 15,000 cases were reported involving international students and other foreigners fraudulently claiming visas and citizenship entitlements.  

Millions of dollars also were lost on the wharves and through airports as criminal syndicates tried to avoid paying Customs duty on tobacco and alcohol. While the Institute of Criminology is cautious in assessing fraud trends, it says the findings of its 2008/09 audit are "consistent" with other reports showing a rise in crimes against the Commonwealth.

Minister for Home Affairs and Justice Brendan O'Connor said the Government was determined to crack down on the "significant amount of money" being defrauded.

"We have increased the numbers of people dedicated to fraud across agencies by more than one-third in the last 12 months," Mr O'Connor said.

In 2006/07, the loss from fraud was calculated by Government agencies to be just $34 million, but this has leap-frogged to nearly $600 million as the level of reporting becomes more robust.Crooked public servants have emerged as a big problem with $1.85 million in "internal" fraud reported in the 2008/09 audit.

The misuse of credit cards by senior bureaucrats jumped 10 per cent to 163 incidents, involving 18 separate Commonwealth agencies.

An even bigger area of fraud involved public servants obtaining and using personal information without authorisation with 1481 incidents reported.   

The rise of professional fraudsters has forced federal authorities to boost resources. The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions also convicted 4089 people - sending a strong deterrent to criminal elements.

The Government also has brought together key crime-fighting agencies - including the Australian Crime Commission and Australian Federal Police - with agencies such as Centrelink and the Tax Office to better tackle fraud. "We're determined to fight fraud against the Commonwealth by minimising chances for it to occur, and rapidly detecting, investigating and prosecuting fraudsters," Mr O'Connor said.

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This is a total furfy, the biggest rorting of the Tax payer goes into foreign aid, wasteful spending on illegal immigrants, the selling of Tertiary places to foreign students, the privatization of the Tax payers assets and then extortion through bills and carbon tax ect.  The cost to the tax payer and this country of money just vanishing out of the country into thin air is incalculable.

How do we get rid of tax fraud - the struggle for social justice!!!

So how does it feel Imcrook to be known as a welfare cheat considering you can work, and instead choose to be on here all day telling other people how to do their jobs.

Well I think they need to have suitable punishment, and when a tax cheat and a welfare cheat are identified, they should be moved into shared accommodation, and made to work together as a unit, until their combined debt is repaid.
This would force them to gain some understanding of the perspectives they each hold, and maybe help them modify it.

Kat wrote on Apr 5^th, 2011 at 7:38am:


Yet in the next breath the article states...


Quote:


How do young people rip off the dole? Even if they have the occasional days work - cash in hand, they have none of the benefits a legal worker is entitled to. Sometimes these jobs are the only means of survival available to them.

Labor under Hawke/Keating were very serious about welfare cheats - yet this regulation was foregone during the Howard era where welfare was dished out to everyone for any flimsy reason. No doubt a culture of fraud has built up over the last decade or so and it will be hard to police now as the population rapidly increases.

The public service and Centrelink need a thorough clean up - but who's going to do it? We can't just keep employing more and more public servants to keep the existing ones honest  - the cycle will only continue.

They need to review the existing penalties to ensure a harsh punishment for the first offence and no second chances.

This old furphy gets dragged out EVERY budget-time, and is
nothing but a transparent attempt to justify hitting the most
vulnerable of welfare recips, while letting the WEALTHfare
rorts continue unchecked.


It is hoped that, by again vilifying the most vulnerable, the
minds of the electorate will be diverted from the REAL rorters
and defrauders, ie the MIDDLE-CLASS and its WEALTHfare.


To talk about cutting benefits/penalising the u/e, single parents
etc, while INCREASING the WEALTHfare payments to the middle-class
is NOTHING LESS than a CRIME.

Verge wrote on Apr 5^th, 2011 at 8:27am:


what about the jobs that Holden were supposed to create making its proverbial 'green' car after ripping off tax payers to the tune of 200 million ??

where is the Holden 'green' car that runs off ethanol because that's what it said it was going to build here ??