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Karl Schembri
Families living under one roof with individuals’ names registered on their ID cards at different addresses are known to be abusing social benefits, but despite Dolores Cristina’s wish to change the system, nobody seems to be responsible for it.
The Minister for the Family and Social Solidarity has for months said she would like to see a change in the ID cards system to cut welfare abuses.
According to the minister, “a change in the current ID system would be another definite step in the right direction” as part of her ministry’s campaign to combat social benefits fraud launched through the Benefit Fraud Directorate.
Last January, the minister told MaltaToday the system needed to be reviewed given the ongoing abuses.
“One of the areas we are looking into is the issuing of ID cards,” she said. “There are cases in which say, three people in one household have an ID card issued on three different addresses – their front door address, their garage address, and the address of their back door which falls on another street, in order to claim more social benefits. The system has to be reviewed to make sure it does not allow any abuse. We have to make sure that people’s addresses are the actual place where they are living.”
Even last week, a spokesperson for the minister confirmed Cristina would like to change the ID cards system, but asked what was being done concretely about it she would not give details.
ID cards however do not fall under Cristina’s portfolio. A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg would not comment when asked if the minister agreed with Cristina’s evaluation of ID cards, nor would he reply if there were any plans to solve the problems she mentioned. He just said the Police Commissioner was responsible for issuing ID cards from the home affairs ministry but the overall policy was the responsibility of the Office of the Prime Minister.
A spokesman from OPM said there was a committee in charge of ID cards but could not give details about any plans either.
Last year, government saved a total over Lm526,000 in its clampdown on benefit fraud – three times the amount saved in 2004.
All cases of benefit fraud involved non-contributory benefits which are not based on past social security contributions, but on the basis of a financial means test, making it easier for the government to control abuse.
The second most common type of benefit fraud involved people claiming sickness assistance, a non-contributory and means-tested benefit amounting to Lm7.55 a week. Sickness assistance can be stopped when the beneficiary marries a spouse who is employed, or when the beneficiary commences work.
The third most common benefit fraud in 2005 involved persons living off social assistance – popularly known as “relief” – a benefit costing the country Lm22 million.
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