Remember the public outrage some time ago over the case of a boxer who had managed to defraud the taxpayer of €21,465 in pension which he had claimed for allegedly being visually impaired when he was still practising the sport? Well, apparently, that was only the tip of the iceberg. Social Policy Minister Michael Farrugia has now revealed the extent of the fraud that has been taking place in the payment of social benefits, and the picture that emerges is not nice at all.
The government, he said, was defrauded of €30 million in social benefits last year. The figure ought to set off alarm bells for, if all the figures of fraud being bandied about are correct, it would surely mean that the country is facing a huge corruption problem, bigger than any index might suggest.
Yet another figure that caused quite a stir some time ago related to a sharp rise in sick leave, by 9,125 days, to 645,313, pushing the cost to €37 million. If other forms of fraud, including the amount defrauded in the tampering of electricity meters, were to be added to the €30 million mentioned by the social policy minister, the total amount would be staggering.
The State may recover some of the millions lost to the system but it is not always easy to do so. In the case of electricity theft, for instance, the government is recovering part of the money through an amnesty given to those who were prepared to regularise their position, but the amount will only be collected over time. Those that have failed to do so are going to be taken to court.
Following the warning given to those who abuse the unemployment benefit system, the government is now turning its guns on those who are claiming other benefits they are not entitled to. The minister was reported saying: “With the system we have today, if you get caught you pay back the amounts due and if you don’t, then good luck to you. Some kind of penalty needs to be introduced.”
Other warnings have been issued in the past, but it seems that this time the government is intent on clamping down on abuse. It is quite right in doing so too for the abusers are cheating both the taxpayer and the State.
However, at the same time that the government mounts a greater effort to clamp down on abusers, it would first need to ensure that the Administration puts its house in order. Had the system been in order, abuse would not have grown to the extent it has today, and the amounts in overpayments, for example, would certainly not have been as high as they are now.
In its report for 2012, the Auditor General had this to say: “An audit on the overpayments of social security benefits, generated by the Social Security Department within the Ministry of the Family and Social Solidarity, revealed practices and procedures which created unnecessary overpayments and limited the recoverability of such amounts.
“It was noted that considerable overpayments were created due to lack of cooperation between a number of government entities.”
The minister has indicated that there is now closer cooperation between the entities involved and that this has already paid off. Experience has shown that it is difficult to eliminate fraud altogether, but it can be kept under control through greater scrutiny of claimants and enforcement of rules and regulations.