Author: Prenzler, Tim
Title: Welfare Fraud in Australia: Dimensions and Issues
Summary: This paper examines anti-fraud measures currently operating in Australia’s welfare system, administered by the government agency, Centrelink. Using official data, an examination is made of the operations and rationales of different strategies and their impacts, including estimated savings. The paper covers nine strategies, including data-matching, public tip-offs, media campaigns, stepped-up investigations and recovery action. The findings indicate that Centrelink has adopted international best practice measures to combat fraud and appears to be particularly successful at detecting and stopping fraud. At the same time, the main challenge appears to lie in the area of finding and demonstrating more effective primary prevention measures.
Details: Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2011. 6p.
Source: Internet Resource: Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, No. 421: Accessed July 11, 2011 at:
Year: 2011
Country: Australia
URL:
Shelf Number: 122021
Keywords:
Commercial CrimesFraudWelfare Fraud (Australia) |
Author: Prenzler, Tim
Title: Responding to Welfare Fraud: The Australian Experience
Summary: The main focus of this comprehensive study is on strategies adopted by Australia’s primary welfare distributor Centrelink for preventing welfare fraud. In particular, the study was concerned with impact measures of the different strategies. The study was also concerned with the antecedents of these strategies, associated prosecution strategies and debates about the justice of these strategies. In addition, the study was concerned to map, as far as possible, the dimensions of suspected and confirmed welfare fraud in terms of numbers of offences, characteristics of offenders, financial losses, types of fraud and trends over time. The report highlights that while welfare fraud remains a significant issue, there has been continuing innovation in the area of detection in the last 30 years. A review of fraud control systems also showed Centrelink to be in step with international best practice, having developed a complex array of strategies to prevent and detect fraud. The report also notes the benefits of strong primary prevention measures such as compliance reviews and education campaigns to explain payment systems to recipients and to stop frauds before they occur.
Details: Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2012. 96p.
Source: Internet Resource: Research and Public Policy Series 119: Accessed January 30, 2013 at:
Year: 2012
Country: Australia
URL:
Shelf Number: 127457
Keywords:
Welfare Fraud (Australia) |
