Welfare crackdown: Melbourne home to wealthiest fraudsters

WELFARE cheats have been caught over-claiming tens of millions in benefits during a nationwide operation chasing unexplained wealth — and Melbourne is home to the nation’s wealthiest fraudsters.

MELBOURNE is home to the wealthiest welfare fraudsters in Australia with new crackdown measures clawing back more than $21 million from cheats across Victoria.

More than 1000 wealthy welfare cheats have been caught over-claiming tens of millions in benefits during a nationwide operation chasing unexplained wealth.

Hundreds of cheats who have been unable to explain to Department of Human Services where the money had come from or why they had failed to declare it as income have been ordered to repay Australian taxpayers $43.4 million of their dodgy claims.

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Melbourne has been crowned the nation's wealthiest welfare fraudsters.

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In one case a Victorian retail worker earned $100,000 but only declared $20,000 of that income.

The worker was ordered to repay $30,000 and sentenced to a two-year good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to welfare fraud.

A joint operation run by the department and the Australian Transaction Reports Analysis Centre chased welfare recipients who had large amounts of unexplained wealth pass through their bank accounts.

The crackdown, which is ongoing, uses the same powers AUSTRAC and law enforcement agencies use to chase money launders, drug dealers and terrorists.

A data matching agreement enables suspicious transactions to be instantly cross-checked against the department’s records to determine if an overpayment had occurred.

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Minister for Human Services Michael Keenan. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

The agreement has saved taxpayers $17.8 million this financial year alone and the average amount each welfare recipient was ordered to repay was $43,000.

One data matching helped the department identify a Victorian who was employed for two years earning more than $70,000, however this income was not declared.

Federal Human Services Minister Michael Keenan said protecting the integrity of the welfare system was a key priority and no stone would be left unturned to identify those abusing the system.

“Australia has a very generous welfare system and it needs to operate with integrity to ensure those who genuinely need our support receive it,” Mr Keenan said.