The Federal Government has revealed there are almost 170,000 Australians who are no longer claiming welfare benefits, and have vowed to crackdown by threatening to charge interest.
The severe measures will begin nationally today and welfare cheats will have one month to pay back debts, equating to $905 million before Centrelink starts asking for interest payments.
The Government has never before charged interest on welfare debts, but this specific incident will see Australians slugged with an interest charge of 8.77 percent.
The Government revealed some debts are for as much as $800,000, with others dating back to 2002.
In Victoria, Centrelink says there is 37,798 welfare rorters, the second-biggest of the nation, trailing behind only New South Wales.
A joint investigation by the Department of Human Services and the Australian Transaction Reports Analysis Centre says fraudulent welfare claims are costing taxpayers millions every year.
Human Services Minister Michael Keenan says personal circumstances will still come into play, however people must be attempting to make an effort to repay their debts.
“Australia has a very generous welfare system and it needs to operate with integrity to ensure those who genuinely need our support receive it,” Keenan said to Starts at 60.
“We will leave no stone unturned in finding those who are defrauding the system, and we’ll use every weapon in our arsenal to bring them to justice.”
The investigation sees the organisations use data matching technology to analyse income and how much each person has claimed through Centrelink.
Keenan says Human Services can hand the matter over to police, if the fraud keeps going or an agreement between recipients, the department and debt collectors cannot be reached.
“If people are deliberately defrauding us, then we will make referrals of that to the police, and they will look at it in conjunction with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions,” he said.
This is not the only announcement Centrelink has made this week, as a review of penalties targeted at people who abuse Centrelink workers is taking shape, after an incident in South Australia.
