Grrr at my friend!!

[briggsy's girl]

if ongoing fraud is suspected, investigators can be engaged to collect information. i honestly don't know the extent of their power - at a guess i would think it would be about collecting obviously available information/pics of people out in public. if it went to prosecution, it would lay with the police and other law enforcement parties to collect information

[Just Me]

O & G - huge It sounds like a tough situation but I think getting your mum to ring was the right solution. If your friend asks you if you dobbed her in, and you don't want to explain yourself, you can answer honestly that it wasn't you. As BG and a couple of others have explained, sounds like you might actually be doing her a huge favour (though she might not realise it). I think it is awful that people do the wrong thing and it affects all the people close to them so badly. I hope the whole thing is sorted out quickly

[e_p]

I just remember MIL and FIL saying that back in the day C'Link used to send people around to check up on 'house mates' of the opposite sex to make sure there were indeed separate beds and clothes were stored separately etc lol... not sure if it's true or if that would be legal in this day and age but I certainly haven't ever had anybody ask questions of me that I hadn't opened myself up for (by walking into C'Link and making a claim or contacting them personally to change/update details etc)

Fraud investigation still do that at times, although its usually not necessary - most people are caught out through data matching with banks, super annuation funds, insurance policies etc...I have a friend that recently transferred to the fraud investigation squad and has been told that she may be required to partake in unannounced inspections of people's homes.

[visitor11]

I would have distanced myself from the relationship also.

Hope it all works out okay xo

[~Jayne~]

Oh Brooke, you have every right to feel so cranky & ripped off all the rest of it. I can only say that Karma has a very funny way of working things out & I'm sure you're going to end up with the last laugh! BOL!
At the end of the day Brooke you can look back at the things that you have in your life & know that you worked hard for them & bought them with your own money, not somebody elses.
xx

[LisaFire]

Grrrr that makes me angry. My DF earns $50 lousy bucks a fortnight before tax for me to get anything. We get a little bit of FTB and for the next 3months baby bonus and thats it. I am looking at having to go back to work, yet there are people out there rorting the system. It got suggested to me to do that and I said no way could I. To me it is morally wrong, let alone illegal.

I would dob her in. But I would also talk to her about it and stress how wrong it and how it makes me feel to know that she is ripping the system off.

[deletedit]

I think the question really needs to be "What is it about the current system that makes people want to commit fraud?"

With payments ranging from barely $300 with savage earning restrictions to over $600 with room to move and extra topups and not a lot you have to do with your situation (ie, lie) to get the higher ones, its not hard to answer that question.

If I lied to Centrelink about myself and partner's situation Centrelink would pay us around $20,000 a year more. That's not small change.

IMHO they should make all their pensions and allowances much closer to each other (raise some, lower others), and raise the earning threshold up from $60 ($60 a fortnight before tax and expenses is NOTHING and a bit mean to cut you down just for that) to the same as PPS and DSP across the board and suddenly there would be far less work for the fraud investigation mob.