The authorities have so far recouped just under €627,000 in benefits payments received by people who were not entitled to them. The figure forms part of an estimated €2.1 million paid out in social assistance for severe disability in a major scandal exposed last September.
The police are looking into the huge racket linked to former Labour MP Silvio Grixti.
Social Policy Minister Michael Falzon told Nationalist MP Jerome Caruana Cilia in reply to a parliamentary question that the amount recovered so far stood at €626,653.
The social benefits fraud racket is taking up the lion’s share of resources at the police Financial Crimes Investigations Department, with five of its seven inspectors assigned to the case.
The FCID officers are understood to have questioned most of the 600-odd people believed to have benefited from the racket between 2019 and 2022.
Police have so far charged 184 people with benefit fraud
The police are assessing how many of these were fraudulent claims. They have evidence that indicates that Grixti, a doctor and former Labour MP, provided false medical certificates for people to receive benefits of around €450 a month they were not entitled to.
Police have so far charged 184 people with benefit fraud, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri told parliament recently. More are expected to be arraigned in the near future.
Most of them admitted their involvement during police questioning and pleaded guilty to fraud charges in court. They are being handed suspended jail sentences and ordered to refund the benefits money.
Between them, they have defrauded taxpayers of more than €2.5 million, which are being paid back gradually, most of them in monthly €100 instalments.
Those who have been receiving the money illicitly for a few years have been ordered to return between €11,000 and €25,000 each.
Data published in parliament earlier this week revealed that Żejtun has more residents receiving a severe disability allowance than any other town.
In total, there are 3,679 people in Malta who are receiving the benefit payments.
Grixti is suspected of being at the centre of a fraud that allowed benefit fraudsters to cash in monthly welfare payments by falsely claiming to be severely disabled.
Fraudsters who were arrested and prosecuted told investigators that they would receive an envelope from Grixti and other, unnamed fixers full of falsified documents that they would then use to obtain disability certification.
Grixti, who resigned from parliament when police started probing the scam in late 2021, has not yet been charged with any crime and has only spoken through social media posts.
In those posts, he implied he was abandoned by the Labour Party and accused it of “protecting” Nationalists like MP Stephen Spiteri who had been investigated by the Medical Council following allegations that he issued medical certificates to people without examining them.
The probe into Spiteri ended abruptly when a court ruled that the council did not have the legal right to conduct its investigation. Both the Medical Council and the attorney general chose not to appeal that decision.
Correction November 25, 2023: A previous version stated most of the 600 people identified by police have yet to be questioned.