3 Billion dollars overpaid benefits.

Nice to see how our money is being (mis)managed/spent. 3 bil squandered. Overpaid through fraud or error. Dont know which one's worse.. Imagine what the number is like for last 10 years.

And yet they have the cheek to want to take more from hard working people. Gotta love it.


Welfare cheats rake in millions

 

And, if you believe some, only a limited few partake in this racket.

$3B / a limited few => great lifestyle

I have always believed it is a lot more than ‘a limited few’. Still, great money if you can get it.

 

And mostly it’s families with kids responsible according to the Seven report which is actually referring to a Newscorp report (so not sure how accurate it really is).

Anyway, overpayments are pretty easy to get back - unless the people have moved off welfare.

I suspect this is yet another click bait item from Seven about how “...they're taking 'our' money or 'our' jobs” Yawn.

I just looked at a fact check article on this topic from a couple of years ago and it mentioned that almost one and a half billion was being recovered in 14/15. The fact chec article suggested that only a quarter was due to fraud...FactCheck: do welfare recipients owe the Australian government about $3.5 billion?

 

Bit like NG but, at least, NG is legal .

 

At the risk of poking the hornets' nest - maybe if the government actually chased up the exorbitant amount of money owing to single parents, from unpaid child support, then the government wouldn't have so many people putting their hands out for benefits, too.

 

This link details some of the amounts recovered. A billion and a half a year.
FactCheck: do welfare recipients owe the Australian government about $3.5 billion?

 

The government is chasing up (recovering) overpayments it has made (due to fraud, miscalculations etc) which is great.

However, if child support was actually paid (by the owing parent) to the parent who needed it, then there's a chance that the parent who needed it wouldn't be putting their hand out for as much government assistance too, which would reduce the need for such high government benefits payouts in the first place.

It would be another way to reduce government welfare payments, at the expense of the taxpayer.

 

Does it really matter though who the receipts are? The point is its money that was obtained either through fraud or incompetence of government. I would much rather the money go to the ACTUAL families who are entitled and in need of it.

 

Didn't they discover a glitch just over a year ago? Linky

Things have improved, where's the headline "Centrelink saves $1b in welfare fraud"?

 

The verdict:

"Verdict
Based on our reading of the available data, the claim that there is around $3.5 billion of debt to the Commonwealth due to fraud, non-compliance or misreporting in the welfare system is correct. – Gerry Redmond and Rodrigo Praino"

 

I'm certain of this.

 

Doesn't it just get docked from the wages? I guess a lot of people earn cash.

 

Some get it docked from wages (if they are in a PAYG, employee situation), but it appears that some do make sure that they get paid in cash, or in ways that are easy to avoid in declaring as taxable income.

I've seen, first hand, the lifestyle that some of the 'child support avoiders' are living - beautiful homes, multiple high-end vehicles, and the most amazing travel/social diaries - while their kids are missing out on many of the bare essentials. The avoiders get dobbed in to the CSA, but very little, if anything, seems to happen. Like our huge companies that avoid paying tax, we have those who should pay child support, and can very clearly afford to, but due to the expertise of a great accountant, seem to get away with contributing nothing to the upkeep of their own child/children.

 

It's not necessarily fraud or incompetence (although, I imagine some of it is).

I know when we had junior - we had custody of hubby's three kids from his previous marriage so,for the first and only time ever, we qualified for government payments ... large family benefit.

We had to estimate income for the year as hubby was PAYE, but we also had investment and CG income. I estimated wrong and ended up, as the end of the financial year, having to pay back around $1,500. Which we did.

Didn't bother ever trying to claim anything again. To much hassle. But easy to see how the figures could add up on FTB part B alone over 7 million households. Add in people who received part time work that bumped their pensions. Kids who move from one household to another ... because it's all based on self reporting and pre-guesstimates.

Not saying there aren't frauds and liars out there - but I suspect the article was for sensational purposes

 

I think Joynz point (mine certainly is) is that mostly 'dole bludgers' get blamed for being on welfare.
Sick and unemployed collect less than 7.5% of the welfare spend.
Assistance to working families is three times the dole spend.
Aged and disabled account for 2/3's of welfare.

 

And won't it be interesting, in the coming years, when the demand for the aged pension increases because the government's constant rule-changes and road-blocks for those trying to sort out a decent superannuation means that they actually can't fully self-fund in retirement.

 

I hear what your saying and personally I have no issue with anyone being on welfare, as long as they are entitled to it and its not by fraudulent means or from error by government.

 

That post is demonstrable wrong

 

Ok.

 

How? I know in the last 12 months there have been several changes - most notably changes to the thresholds on "how much" you can put in, and hold in, before you get the bejeezus taxed out of you yet again.

There is no point in us putting any more into the super (asides from the compulsory) because close to the "how much you can have in your super" limit already - so no control, no access until retired, but still taxed