New figures have sparked Government Services Minister Bill Shorten to lash out at the ‘scumbags’ who were making fraudulent claims for disaster relief payments.
, the agency detected a total of 27,770 cases of suspicious activity, allowing it to quarantine about $10.5 million from being handed to fraudulent claimants.
Shorten said the resources required to investigate fraud took staff away from more positive activities they could be doing for the community, including processing emergency payments.Government Services Minister Bill Shorten says investigations into fraud held up the government from getting payments out faster.“The high number of claims that have been triggered as potentially fraudulent is alarming.
“Services Australia are working around the clock to investigate these claims, and people who defraud taxpayers will be caught and face charges.”The damage bill for the February flood disaster that ravaged Queensland and NSW is about $4.3 billion, the fourth highest from a natural disaster in Australia’s history. In total, Services Australia has received 3.5 million claims relating to the floods.over delays to flood assistance payments.
Over the past year, the agency has completed more than 916 investigations into alleged fraud against the natural disaster assistance program, resulting in more than 57 referrals to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for criminal prosecution. In July this year alone, the fraud profiling triggers stopped $7 million from being handed out to fraudsters.