ILLEGAL CLAIMS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20632, 13 August 1941, Page 3

ILLEGAL CLAIMS

OVER £25,400 PAID OUT MAJOR PAtfT REFUNDED (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The report of the auditor a,nd con-troller-general discloses that the careful check on the accuracy of claims for benefits under the social security scheme last year involved dealing witli cases of irregularities totalling 2339, involving an aggregate of overpayments of £25,444. These were cases in which recipients of pensions, sustenance, age and other benefits obtained over-payments by failing to disclose material particulars of their circumstances to the Labour or Pensions Departments or the Social Security Department. Except in a small number of cases where the beneficiaries are on active service, deceased, or in straitened circumstances. refunds have been obtained, and this was done in no fewer than 2326 cases. Police proceedings were necessary in 13 cases involving £268, and convictions involving fines, and in some instances restitution, were secured in all. irregularities by Social Security Department officers were confined to a solitary eftse involving £2 ss, and the offender was dismissed and restitution made.