Greece Catches 200,000 Cases Of Fraudulent Pension Claims

Greece’s Labour Ministry has discovered nearly 200,000 cases of pension or welfare fraud by its citizens, claimed a report by Reuters on Wednesday, with the government expected to save up to 800 million euros ($1 billion) a year from ending these payments.

Greece’s Labour Ministry has discovered nearly 200,000 cases of pension or welfare fraud by its citizens, claimed a report by Reuters on Wednesday, with the government expected to save up to 800 million euros ($1 billion) a year from ending these payments.

Among the most common fraudulent claims by Greeks included those who were seeking benefits for various disabilities such as blindness, rich people posing as the poor to become eligible, and about 9,000 cases of families still drawing pensions of relatives who have passed away.

On the island of Zakynthos for instance, doctors and officials were implicated in the granting of an inexplicably high number of benefits for “blind people” who, despite their “disability”, were still working as taxi or truck drivers.

The Labour Ministry said that they utilised simple data cross checks starting from September last year to uncover the abuse, but admitted that “disorganised, chaotic, or even corrupt” officials may have been to blame for the widespread misuse of public funds.

[quote]”Registry offices didn’t even have an automatic system to notify deaths to social security funds,” said former senior official at the ministry, Athina Dretta.[/quote]

A senior Labour ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that thousands of cases were currently being sent to court so that the state could “reclaim the money they (the fraudulent cases) have illegally taken.”

Although benefit fraud is common in many welfare states, Greece has come under heavy pressure from the European Union and IMF to launch a massive crackdown on it – in return for its latest 130 billion euro bailout.

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According to the Greek Reporter, the government was even checking security camera footage of cash withdrawals from ATMs in order to catch pension and benefit cheats, while a ring involving several employees at the IKA social insurance fund in Kallithea, southern Athens, were caught earlier this year for using forged papers to pay out health benefits.

Nevertheless, the Greek financial turmoil has still affected genuine cases of welfare claims, with the government slashing pensions by an average of 25 percent to meet its debtors’ budget demands.

Outgoing Greek Labour Minister Giorgos Koutroumanis have already said that the next government might decide on how many of around 90 different social benefits will be scrapped, though efforts to shore up the social security system may be hampered by a wave of business closures and a rise in unemployment to a record level of nearly 22 percent.

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