Woman lies about her marriage to defraud Centrelink
Date published
September 2017
Relevant impacts: Financial impact and reputational impact
A Tasmanian woman lied about her marital status four times over the course of six years to receive $160,766 in Centrelink benefits to which she was not entitled. She stated she was a single mother when she was actually living with her partner who she married in 2011. The registered address she used was a bush block with no actual residence and the landlord did not exist. This investigation commenced after a tip off to Services Australia. The woman received 3 years in prison after pleading guilty to the charges.
Related fraudster personas
Related countermeasures
Use declarations or acknowledgments to both communicate and confirm that a person understands their obligations and the consequences for non-compliance. The declaration could be written or verbal, and should encourage compliance and deter fraud.
Verify any requests or claim information you receive with an independent and credible source.
Match data with the authoritative source and verify relevant details or supporting evidence.
Services such as the Identity Matching Service can be used to verify identity credentials back to the authoritative source when the information is an Australian or state and territory government issued identity credential.
This countermeasure is supported by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's Guidelines on data matching in Australian government administration.
Require clients, staff and third parties to have ongoing compliance, performance and contract reviews.
These are processes that identify and recover debts owed by staff, customers and third parties.
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