Australian taskforce to crackdown on billions stolen by welfare cheats

The Australian government has set up a new taskforce to crack down on welfare cheats after it was revealed taxpayers have been defrauded to the tune of an estimated 3.63 billion U.S. dollars (USD).

The Australian Federal Police (AFP)-run taskforce has been charged with the difficult assignment of recovering the misappropriated funds, and given the authority to pursue criminal charges for the most serious cases.

Australian media reported in September that around 2.18 billion U.S. dollars in back-payments were owed to the government's welfare distributer, Centrelink.

A further 1.23 billion U.S. dollars in reimbursements has been brought to the attention of the new joint taskforce -- which will comprise nine AFP officers and 300 Department of Human Services (DHS) personnel -- who will now decipherer whether those involved were knowingly or unknowingly responsible.

All forms of government payments have been plundered by the fraudsters including Newstart, the Disability Support Pension, Medicare, youth allowances and family payments.

Human Services Minister Stuart Robert made the announcement on Thursday and said the unit would serve to keep people honest.

"Anyone taking welfare payments dishonestly has to understand this is theft, and the consequences are serious," Robert told News Corp on Thursday.

"You will get caught, you will have to pay the money back and you may be prosecuted and go to prison.

"If you have profited from the fraud your assets may also be seized as proceeds of crime."

Robert said benefactors of welfare who had their payments miscalculated usually promptly returned the extra funds, but a small portion of the public did not.

The New South Wales city of Sydney, specifically the southern suburbs, will be the first point-of-call for the new taskforce, with more than 800 known cases of overpayment totaling 1.6 million U.S. dollars. Endit