02-10-2023, 03:27 PM
As MSD shifts focus.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/3...1#cxrecs_s
"The number of prosecutions for benefit fraud has steadily declined in recent years – to a level on par with that for tax fraud. But one researcher says that could change if there is a new government after the election.
“However, resourcing during Covid has clearly had an impact, so it will be interesting to see what happens over the next year or two – especially if we have a government that is more punitive.
“In some ways, I think the more interesting issue is why there are so few criminal prosecutions of tax fraud. It seems to be a global issue that there is little appetite to prosecute tax fraudsters.”
“It is getting harder to even engage in benefit fraud, anyway, because of the increasing sophistication of tools that can be used to match data, and so on. You would expect to see cases of benefit fraud dropping. There are still a lot of investigations.
” It’s interesting that now we are in that ‘political, trying to attract votes’ situation, it’s an easy punitive narrative to bring out again,” she said. “A lot of people are still under the impression that everybody on a benefit is really just a fraudster and there’s widespread abuse of the system, which I don’t think really is the case.
“If we had a change of government, we could see a reversal of what the trend has been over the last few years, which is almost equalisation of prosecutions for tax and benefit fraud.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/3...1#cxrecs_s
"The number of prosecutions for benefit fraud has steadily declined in recent years – to a level on par with that for tax fraud. But one researcher says that could change if there is a new government after the election.
In 2019, there were 129 prosecutions by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and 58 by Inland Revenue.
The next year, it dropped to 63 and 58 respectively, before further drops to 60 and 50 in 2021.
Last year, there were 38 Inland Revenue prosecutions, compared to 36 from MSD.“However, resourcing during Covid has clearly had an impact, so it will be interesting to see what happens over the next year or two – especially if we have a government that is more punitive.
“In some ways, I think the more interesting issue is why there are so few criminal prosecutions of tax fraud. It seems to be a global issue that there is little appetite to prosecute tax fraudsters.”
She said the country spent more money on pursuing benefit fraud than it did on tax evaders.
“It is getting harder to even engage in benefit fraud, anyway, because of the increasing sophistication of tools that can be used to match data, and so on. You would expect to see cases of benefit fraud dropping. There are still a lot of investigations.
” It’s interesting that now we are in that ‘political, trying to attract votes’ situation, it’s an easy punitive narrative to bring out again,” she said. “A lot of people are still under the impression that everybody on a benefit is really just a fraudster and there’s widespread abuse of the system, which I don’t think really is the case.
“If we had a change of government, we could see a reversal of what the trend has been over the last few years, which is almost equalisation of prosecutions for tax and benefit fraud.”
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)
