The Department of Social Security carried out no checks whatsoever when evaluating many applications for social benefits last year, the Auditor General has found.
The 2014 public accounts report, published by the National Audit Office earlier this week, has flagged up the system by which benefit applications were processed last year, raising concerns that they were being “taken as given” by the authorities.
The review of the system comes on the back of the government’s renewed commitment to fight benefit fraud. Last month, Social Policy Minister Michael Farrugia said the government wanted to be fair with genuine cases but would not tolerate abuse.
According to the NAO report, although the department had the facility to review bank and employment details, most of the instances reviewed by the Auditor General found no evidence that this was done.
The department could also request taxpayer profiles when reviewing applications, however, this was not in practice either. NAO testing found that such profiles, compiled by the government, were only being used to look into cases where benefit-receivers’ lifestyles had changed considerably or in situations which warranted investigation. In both cases, the report added, benefits were already being paid out and another process would have to be entered to start reclaiming them.
The Auditor General carried out his own review of a selection of recipients and found several irregularities in a number of cases.
A mother of nine failed to disclose the sale of three properties and the purchase of another two
In one application filed, a mother of nine failed to disclose the sale of three properties and the purchase of another two. Further investigations revealed that the property she claimed to be renting was in fact her own and that while she claimed to be part-time farmer, she actually had a considerable amount of livestock. The case is now being reviewed by the department.
The management of the department said it was now holding regular meetings with the Office of the Prime Minister to set up the Business Intelligence Unit, which would tap cases of fraud at an early application stage.
Moreover, the department said it was also working with the Malta Information and Technology Agency to set up an online application, which would help weed out cases of fraud. Department staff were also currently attending additional courses at the government’s Tax Compliance Unit.
The checks carried out during the application stage, however, were not the only problems highlighted by the NAO report.
Concerns were also raised about the excessive payments being made in arrears.
One such case, used by the NAO to illustrate the problem, saw a single mother receive an extra €14,000 in benefits she was not entitled to.
The NAO expressed concern that the sale and purchase of property was not included in the means testing carried out to assess applications for benefits.
The management of the department said it hoped to introduce measures to address these issues.