Great success for the Interior and Finance Ministries – 25.5 million euros in damage discovered or prevented – around 4,650 accused identified – almost 100% clearance rate
Vienna (OTS) – The Social Security Fraud Task Force (TF SOLBE), led by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BK), presents its strongest annual results since its inception. Through close cooperation with the tax authorities and many other partners, it was once again possible to uncover thousands of cases and identify suspects. The total amount of damage caused or prevented by the investigation for 2023 is more than 25.5 million euros.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner underlines the importance of these investigations: “The joint investigation group against social benefit fraud takes important and consistent measures for all those who work hard and use their contributions to ensure that benefits are provided by the state. We must handle taxpayers’ money carefully and prevent misuse. The impressive investigative successes confirm once again that the establishment of this investigative group was the right step.”
“Social benefits are intended to support people who find themselves in difficult situations. However, we take decisive action against those who enrich themselves illegally at the expense of the general public. The successful cooperation between the financial police and the BMI is a guarantee of fairness and the fight against abuse,” said Finance Minister Magnus Brunner.
About the Task Force SOLBE
The TF SOLBE was founded in 2018 to protect the welfare state from the abuse of its benefits. The unit installed in the Federal Criminal Police Office carries out both investigations and key actions, such as controls on international air traffic, and comprehensive preventative measures throughout the country. The current focus is on people who fake false residences in Austria in order to illegally collect social benefits. Since 2018, over 20,000 suspects have been identified.
For its investigations, TF SOLBE accesses an extensive national and international network. In addition to the financial police as a central partner, various state police departments, the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum and embassies and liaison officers abroad are also working on the success of the investigation. There are also many partners in public administration, such as the pension insurance company.
Common forms of inspection
The BK currently knows more than 50 different types of inspection, which can be summarized in these main groups:
- Unreported stays abroad while simultaneously consuming social benefits
- Illegal receipt of social benefits based on a false residence in Germany
- Fraudulently obtaining a continued benefit despite the death of a beneficiary
- Concealing assets for the purpose of illegally receiving or increasing social benefits
- Deception about the actual living situation (non-reporting or false reporting in the population register)
- Deception about the actual state of health in order to obtain social benefits
- Faking illnesses (e.g. blindness) in order to illegally benefit from social benefits (care allowance).
- Forgery of documents
- Concealing one’s true identity (e.g. “age lie”).
- Untruthful information about legitimate employment relationships or “illicit work”
Statistics: reports, damage, accused
The number of reports and the total amount of damage has been increasing continuously and rapidly for ten years, culminating in a peak of 4,457 cases in 2023. The background to this increase is the massively increased interministerial and interorganizational control measures (keyword: control offense). Another reason for the sharp increase in suspected cases is the awareness-raising measures of all relevant stakeholders and paying bodies in order to identify possible attempts at fraud at an early stage.
Social security fraud is a “permanent fraud”: If the fraud is not discovered, the unlawful enrichment continues permanently. Therefore, the “prevented” damage is a central point in this special offense. Through targeted control and investigative measures from 2018 to 2023, TF SOLBE was able to determine or prevent a total amount of damage of more than 112.3 million euros, with the highest level of approximately 25.5 million euros being reached in 2023 (+80, 7% compared to 2022). This sum refers to both the damage actually caused and the damage that would have been prevented if the Republic continued to provide services
Thanks to an exorbitantly efficient clearance rate of 99.6%, most of the suspects were identified and reported. In around 70 to 80% of known cases, the accused are strangers. Broken down for 2023: 1,250 defendants with Austrian citizenship, 3,394 defendants with non-Austrian citizenship. The most common nationalities of the accused in 2023 are by far Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
“It is always astonishing how unscrupulous some suspects are in trying to defraud the state,” says Brigadier Gerald Tatzgern, head of the responsible department in the Federal Criminal Police Office. “These fraudsters will stop at nothing. They feign poverty, receive social benefits, but often have wealth through illegal business.”
Work of the financial police
Last year, the financial police in the anti-fraud office filed 159 reports of social benefit fraud with TF SOLBE. In addition, last year the financial police submitted 397 reports of unreported work by employees to the employment service, which in turn pursues the recovery of the benefits wrongly received. The trend in both points is upwards in 2024.
Wilfried Lehner, head of the financial police: “The fight against social benefit fraud requires all offices and authorities to join forces in order to be able to take effective action against these brazen forms of fraud at the expense of the general public. I am very pleased that the financial police have a very good coordination of our investigative activities with the SOLBE Task Force and can therefore combat social fraud and social benefit fraud in a unified manner.”
Examples from everyday investigations
On the BMI website at www.bmi.gv.at Four detailed examples of social benefit fraud with different forms of perpetration can be read.
Questions & Contact:
federal Ministry of Internal Affairs
Ministerial Councilor Markus Haindl, BA MA
Press spokesman for the Federal Minister
+43 (0) 1-531 26 – 90 1021
markus.haindl@bmi.gv.at
www.bmi.gv.at