Government cracking down on welfare fraud to claw back $4 billion
The Turnbull government is cracking down on welfare fraud and upping up its efforts to reclaim $4 billion worth of incorrect payments made to recipients.
The new online compliance system links a recipient's information with the tax office and is set to generate 20,000 interventions a week.
In total, it is expected to generate 1.7 million compliance notices over the next three years, which will help to meet the government’s debt recovery targets.
The Turnbull government is cracking down on welfare fraud. Photo: Supplied
"Our aim is to ensure that people get what they are entitled to - no more and no less. And to crack down hard when people deliberately defraud the system," Human Services Minister Alan Tudge told The Australian.
Most of the debt notices, worth almost $650m, have been issued in the past four months and incurred through overpayments during the Gillard government between 2010 and 2013.
The majority of the money was overpaid because welfare recipients did not properly update their income and employment earnings.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter warned that spending on Centrelink benefits is projected to increase by 2020. Photo: AAP
However, in some cases overpayments have been made because of deliberate fraud.
The crackdown comes as Social Services Minister Christian Porter warned that spending on Centrelink benefits is projected to increase from $158.6bn this year to $191.8bn in 2019-20.
Mr Tudge said: “The government is using technology to quickly identify and inform people when overpayments occur due to a genuine mistake, and to ensure we detect the small number of people who deliberately try to defraud the system."
