Sydney Family's $2 Million Welfare Rort

[icyfroth]

Thirty-eight members of a western Sydney family have been caught rorting $2 million of welfare payments from the government.

One person claimed benefits while depositing $750,000 over three years and another paid off a $300,000 mortgage in just over two years while claiming income support.

 A third person received rent assistance for a property they already owned, said the Department of Human Services on Thursday.

 A spokesman for the department says the family fraud was discovered from a tip-off that a man had failed to declare his income.

Nineteen family members have had their welfare payments cancelled after a wide-ranging investigation and another 19 have had their payments reduced.

Five members of the family have been referred to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and debts have been raised against the fraudsters.

She admitted there was one family member who had failed to report almost $1 million over 11 years, and her department is working closely with the Australian Tax Office and Australian Federal Police.

Entire Article Here

"The debts we currently have in relation to social welfare fraud investigations are $39 million," she said.

 She warned people who are rorting the system that "we will find you".

Oh really? It took a tip-off for them to find this lot!

What about the other $37mil?

Australia the bountiful, Centrelink the inept.

[lloydslights]

I think only  a certain amount can be left for living expenses after  garnishee-ing payments for paying back any penalty.

All in all though, this is the ultimate extended family showcasing what may be happening to a far lesser degree in every street in Australia.

Here we thought big brother is watching, but he's not cross-matching data to call attention to the blight of our society.

DEB

Edit: typos, sorry

[myoclon1cjerk]

Tsk tsk.Rich people ripping off the system....again.

[k0llectable5]

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@lloydslights wrote:

I think only  a certain amount can be left for living expenses after  garnishee-ing payments for paying back any penalty.

All in all though, this is the ultimate extended family showcasing what may be happening to a far lesser degree in every street in Australia.

Here we thought big brother is watching, but he's not cross-matching data to call attention to the blight of our society.

DEB

Edit: typos, sorry

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I agree with you Deb but I dont think the problem is as wide spread as how you have made it sound.  For most people living on benefits alone it is serious poverty line living.  After bills and food it really doesn't leave welfare recipients with much at all.  Sometimes as little as $50 which has to last them 2 weeks.  

I wonder how this family in the article actually got away with it for so long, did they not put in a tax return for 10 years or something? If they were recieving newstart they would've had to have been registered with a JNP and would've been forced to go to meetings with their JNP at the very least once a month as well as centrelink meetings often...

It's a shame when people rort the system because it makes the ones that are truly struggling seem less worthy of recieving benefits.   

[rabbitearbandicoot]

I knew a couple who were rorting Centrelink. They were registered as a married couple under one name, another couple under another name , and each of them were registered as single under two other names. They owned property in Queensland, and property in NSW - rented out. They themselves lived in Housing Commission homes with very cheap rent. And, Yes we reported them - several times over the years. They were even interviewed by Centrelink. As far as I know they were never caught, and they may be still doing it.

[siggie-reported-by-alarmists]

Their homes, cars and goods need to be sold off until every cent has been repaid.

Never to receive payments again........ not likely to happen though.

[k0llectable5]

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@rabbitearbandicoot wrote:

I knew a couple who were rorting Centrelink. They were registered as a married couple under one name, another couple under another name , and each of them were registered as single under two other names. They owned property in Queensland, and property in NSW - rented out. They themselves lived in Housing Commission homes with very cheap rent. And, Yes we reported them - several times over the years. They were even interviewed by Centrelink. As far as I know they were never caught, and they may be still doing it.

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Thats a very elaborate scheme Rabbitear, the only way they could get away with that is having fake identification documents and birth certificates etc.  Thats 3 lots of fake ID each 

[happyroo_bunji]

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@retailtherapist_8 wrote:

Pardon my ingnorance AND I dont mean to sound trite but how much is the Dole & do people get rent asistance on top of that?

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Yes you can get the Dole and rent assistance on top of that.  I don't know the full dole rate, sorry can't help you with that

[2106greencat]

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@happyroo_bunji wrote:

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@retailtherapist_8 wrote:

Pardon my ingnorance AND I dont mean to sound trite but how much is the Dole & do people get rent asistance on top of that?

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Yes you can get the Dole and rent assistance on top of that.  I don't know the full dole rate, sorry can't help you with that

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Remembering that Rent Assistance is exactly that - only for Rent - you do not qualify if you are paying off a home.

Which on one hand I totally agree with, why should the Govt help fund the purchase of your home persay, but then on the other hand, a great majority of rental property's are mortgaged (to owner/rent recipient) so in effect the Govt are still helping fund the purchase of someone's home albeit no the person who desperately needs the help.

[boris1gary]

this kind of thing is very, very rare and sounds like this family are quite wealthy to start with. 

http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/november/1414760400/richard-cooke/much-obliged?t=1WE9GHkMy 

The government routinely investigates welfare fraud using powers it originally sought to target terrorism. Centrelink now accesses more personal metadata than any other enforcement agency, more often even than the New South Wales Police Force. It’s a simple procedure: a Centrelink agent fills in a form, gets approval from elsewhere in their department, and is authorised to tap into personal phone records and email history. The subject is not informed.

So far there’s not much evidence welfare fraud is out of control. Between 2006 and 2010, Centrelink conducted an average of 4 million compliance reviews each year, which covered 60% of its “customers”. The yield of cases referred for prosecution was on average 0.04%, or 3192 people. In 2012, fewer than 1500 people were referred for welfare fraud.

[lyndal1838]

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@village_person wrote:

 So much for the Dept of Human Services internal checking systems. I'll bet the Dept of Human Services is paying a pension to Ivan Milat because of stress related issues.

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I hope that was a tongue in cheek comment.....do you really believe that prisoners get any sort of payment or pension?

What they do get is very good medical attention and access at will to their solicitors.   They only have to ask and they get it.