Benefit payments checked

Press, 12 August 1980, Page 24

Benefit payments checked

The Social Welfare Department in Christchurch was making continuous efforts to control any abuse of its benefits payments, said the district commissioner (Mr C. Waters).

Mr Waters was commenting on a Press Association report . that the department in Auckland would try to check sickness benefits more closely ■ after a $4OOO fraud case heard in the High Court there. There were continuing problems with checking applications for sickness bene-! fit . payments, said Mri I Waters. Staff had to check, signatures against a list of j registered medical' practitioners and check with the applicant’s employer. Applications ' were counterchecked by another member of the department’s staff. The department has already indicated that it is considering random checks on beneficiaries throughout New Zaeland in an effort to control abuse of the system. No decision had yet been made on whether, or when, this programme was likely to begin, said the assistant director - general (administration) in Wellington, Mr T. J. Sanger. The idea was “still under action.”

He emphasised that random checks of beneficiaries would be part of a “quality control” programme aimed at controlling the number of beneficiaries who abused the system claiming by benefits they were no longer entitled to. Checks would also be made on staff to minimise in-office error.