The off the book incomes of beneficiaries – from Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage by Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein
28 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of love and marriage, gender, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty, social insurance, welfare fraud
Chapple and Boston on the extent of welfare benefit fraud in New Zealand
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, law and economics, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, crime and punishment, deterrence, Jonathan Boston, Simon Chapple, welfare fraud, welfare reform
What is more surprising about this honest disclosure of welfare fraud to the Household Labour Force Survey of Statistics New Zealand in 2011 is these welfare beneficiaries were so upfront about their criminal fraud.
These estimates must underestimate the extent of welfare fraud because some of these criminals would be aware that they should be slightly discreet in the company of any government official when discussing their eligibility for welfare benefits and any false information supplied in their claims for welfare benefits.
Some welfare cheats are alert to this basic criminal skill and do not claim their benefit if called in to the welfare benefits office for a reassessment of their eligibility. They don’t have the front to go near a government official while defrauding the taxpayer.
Yes, welfare fraud is a crime so people who perpetrated these crimes by obtaining welfare benefits under false pretences are criminals. If these criminals are caught, they are prosecuted for a crime and sometimes sent to prison.
HT: Muriel Newman
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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