ITV News can reveal a five-fold increase in fraudulent benefit claims in Jersey in the past five years.
New figures show more than two million pounds in pay-outs has been wrongly claimed by islanders since 2009.
But the true scale could be much greater, with investigators admitting it is almost impossible to uncover ever case of cheating.
In the past five years the Fraud Team based at Social Security has recovered £2,096,928 of wrongly claimed benefits.
- Last year alone that amounted to £464,203.
- The vast bulk of it, nearly £400,000, is from Income Support claimants.
- Overall, in the past five years, the amount of wrongly claimed Income Support has increased by 644%, dodgy Sickness and Invalidity Benefit claims up 266%.
Social Security minister Senator Francis Le Gresley said:
- “The Department considers prosecution where appropriate, which is both time consuming and costly to the States of Jersey. All cases are reviewed regularly throughout the investigation ensuring that they meet the criteria outlined in the Centeniers’ Guidelines. This ensures that time and effort is spent appropriately.”
The government’s Benefits Fraud Hotline receives tip-offs which are investigated by a specialist team.
Some take a few hours to fathom, others take many months.
Some turn out to be genuine mistakes, others intentional deceptions.
There are five current cases yet to reach the courts. In total, allegations of fraud totalling £113,093 are still to be considered by a judge.
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