Prime Time is investigating social welface fraud

RTE Prime Time: Mark

Prime Time is examining the issue of social welfare fraud in Ireland and invites your comments and observations on the subject. Please post the programme by private mail. All replies will of course be considered with utmost confidence.



Prime Time,

Current Affairs Dept.,

RTE.

GoldenTickets

Here's one for you Mark,

It was going on over lunchtime in the Biz - Taxation forum on this site:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055702448

tommy21

A lot of people will be running for the hills so to speak so . Well there are a lot of queries on here, some innocent, some not so innocent, on "Do I need to declare this or that" or "I'm going to New York for ten days and when I'm not working anyway will it really make that much difference" to blatant queries on how to claim on both sides of the border. The mods in this forum crack down on such behaviour very quickly but its definately onging. There is also a healthy amount of contributors asking for and willing to report scam artists.

eddiehobbs

GoldenTickets wrote: »

Here's one for you Mark,

It was going on over lunchtime in the Biz - Taxation forum on this site:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055702448

Was reading that earlier. Looks like that threads been removed unfortunatly.

gaeilgebeo

ABOUT BLOODY TIME!!!!!

Sephiroth_dude

Dam I missed it.

jimmyw

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Dam I missed it.

You did not miss it because there was nothing about it on it last night. I looked to see if the social welfare fraud was on it and it was not. When is it going to be on mark?

rachieqtpie

Social welfare should have a direct telephone line withe the people who see the fraudsters coming in everyday and paying them but having no say in the matter!!

The amount of people i could name off the top of my head is crazy but there is no way workers in post offices can let the Social know directly!

musky

If this is prime time, 1 point you should address along with fraud is this.

Why after working for numerous years and contributing to the exchequer in all manner of direct and stealth taxes are the recently unemployed paid at such a ridiculously low rate?

In other countries newly unemployed individuals receive a sliding scale payment to allow them to adjust to the life altering reality that is unemployment.

We need a reform that seperates our benefit and assistance systems.

To clarify for other posters, I am not advocating that assistance should be cut, I am not wishing any hardship on anybody and I am most certainly not trying to provoke a negative reaction.

I would much prefer that we lived in a more stable and balanced economy where there were options for all of our society.

I truly feel that the 'insurance' that PAYE employees pay is not truly equitable and that all unemployed are portrayed as second class citizens.

snubbleste

To answer your question Musky,
We have a flat rate of payment regardless of contributions, just like the UK. Our system evolved with theirs not with other european countries.

With regard to this primetime 'special'. I really wish you would focus more on those at the top, (politicians, quangos, golden handshakes, dodgy contracts, odd decisions) because that is where fraud starts and filters down to the bottom rungs of society. We have suck lax investigative journalism in this country

musky

Hi Snubbleste,

I think that this is fianna fail's (who control rte) way of chopping down welfare much more than the 5% proposed.

If they gather a lot of public sentiment against the unemployed by saying that they are all scroungers, fraudsters and work shy etc then when they cut the welfare rate by a larger amount then they will think they have public opinion on their side.

It smells like a set up, as for them going after the real perpetrators of our debacle - they never will! unless its to line their pockets again.

All we have to do is look at the way Molloy of Fas got a €1mill pay off while two of the main dublin fas offices were being closed.

Watch how the clown Comhairle gets a soft slap on the wrist and isn't jailed for theft and deception. If I had ever done that in a job I would be slopping out in mountjoy.

If I were a betting man I would hazard a gamble that most of the discounted NAMA properties will be sold back to the developers (under a altered guise) in a few years at a severe loss to the taxpayer.