Australians Reporting Family Members Rorting Centrelink Is At An All-Time High

The number of Australians reporting friends and family who they believe are rorting Centrelink has reached record high.

The Department of Human Services (DHS) has revealed that New South Wales had the highest amount of cheats investigated, with 31,041 tip-offs made to authorities within 2016 and 2017.

Queensland followed with 25,487 alleged fraudsters investigated, then Victoria came next with 21,471 people reported.

Andrew Weisman from the DHS said the data relating to Centrelink fraud is now at an all-time high.

“It’s an epidemic and it needs to be dealt with,” he told 9NEWS.

Examples of people reporting family members can be found on the DHS website.

One person wrote on a blog that they reported their brother and his girlfriend after they flaunted their money and gold jewellery after claiming single parent benefits.

Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge said these kinds of offenders will be prosecuted. “They are effectively stealing from other Australians, and we want to identify those people and take the appropriate course of action,” he said.

The federal government has just created a taskforces in Queensland’s Caboolture and Ipswich to end Centrelink fraud.

They are now looking at new locations to continue the crackdown, with Logan believed to be one of the areas set to be targeted.

Source: 9news.com.au