The government is investing to stop grant fraud

Large amounts are paid out incorrectly from the welfare system every year, in the form of grants.

Most errors are caused by those who apply for the grants, sometimes unconsciously, but a high proportion of errors are judged to be conscious.

The proportion of incorrect payments also risks increasing as historically large sums have been paid out to alleviate the consequences of the pandemic.

In the autumn budget, the government, the Center Party and the Liberals propose an initiative to deal with cheating.

Several authorities will receive a total of SEK 189 million to work with this.

- It is significant sums that disappear in deliberate cheating.

We will be clear that this money will be used to work systematically and harder to stop the cheating, says Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson (S), to DN.

Cheating finances crime

The Swedish Social Insurance Agency, the Swedish Public Employment Service, the Swedish Pensions Agency, the Central Student Aid Board (CSN) and the Swedish Migration Agency will together receive SEK 150 million for this purpose.

In addition to this, the Swedish Financial Management Authority (ESV), according to the proposal, will receive nine million.

The money will go to a special function that will help support, coordinate and follow up the work.

The Swedish Tax Agency is proposed to receive SEK 30 million for the work of combating tax fraud.

An important purpose of the proposal is to prevent subsidy fraud from becoming part of the financing of organized crime.

- We want to stop the money for the criminal networks, regardless of whether it is motorcycle gangs, clans or more loosely composed networks.

This is a step in stopping the money supply there, says Magdalena Andersson to DN.

Proposal for a new authority

In June 2018, the government decided that a special investigator would be commissioned to investigate, among other things, how incorrect payments from welfare systems can be prevented.

In a report submitted to the government in June this year, the inquiry proposes, among other things, that a new authority, the Authority for Disbursement Control, be established on 1 July 2022. The authority's mission is to prevent, prevent and detect erroneous payments from state welfare systems.

The proposal is now out for consultation and the answers must be submitted to the Ministry of Finance no later than 30 October 2020.