The job center is on the trail of benefit fraudsters (archive photo)
Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jens Kalaene
By Dirk Hoeren
In the past four years, job centers have uncovered and reported 165,971 cases of possible benefit fraud by Hartz IV recipients. From the beginning of 2023, Hartz IV was replaced by citizens’ money.
The support recipients should provide the offices with income, e.g. B. have kept secret from a job or pension insurance.
The so-called “overpayment cases” have become noticeable due to the increasingly intensive data comparison between job centers and the pension insurance. Between 2018 and 2022, the authorities transmitted a total of 9.1 million data packets to identify possible hidden income. The pension insurance company compares the information with other authorities and the data available to it.
Last year alone, according to a response from the federal government to a request from the Left in the Bundestag, data comparisons were carried out 1.3 million times. 82,269 indications of overpayment cases were identified.
▶︎ 39,622 were passed on to the public prosecutor’s office and the customs illegal employment investigators.
▶︎ 17,892 Hartz IV recipients had their benefits completely canceled due to concealed income. In addition, 4,192 fines were imposed and 93 support recipients were sentenced to prison terms.
The data comparison to uncover possible Hartz IVFraud has become largely automated in recent years. The pension insurance checks whether the support recipients or their household members, for example. B. have your own income, interest income or pensions.
If there is specific suspicion, the data from the job centers can also be compared with the central vehicle register, the central register of foreigners or the housing benefit offices.