Australia's dole queue has grown 18.6 per cent in the past year, with 788,364 people now surviving on Newstart or Youth Allowance while they look for work.
As welfare groups press the Gillard government to increase the $35-a-day Newstart benefit in tomorrow's Federal Budget, News Limited can reveal that Centrelink's outstanding debt has jumped 8.5 per cent in three years.
Fraud accounts for barely a tenth of the debt - the rest is from overpayment errors.
Welfare groups blame Centrelink's complex rules on declaring income - resulting in people unintentionally claiming too much in dole, disability, pension or family benefit payments.
The government is unlikely to bow to welfare groups' demands for a $50 per week increase to the dole, as it would cost $15b over four years.
But it is more likely to let Newstart recipients earn more money from part-time or casual work, before their dole payments are cut.
The latest Human Services Department data, provided to a Senate estimates committee, shows Centrelink spent $6.4m in 2011/12 to identify $34m worth of fraudulent payments.
Fraud appears to be on the rise - in the seven months to February this year, the value of fraudulent payments reached $24.5m.
The department's ''compliance program'' cost $318m last financial year.
But the data reveals the department carried out 40 per cent fewer ''compliance reviews'' last year - just 490,764 Centrelink customers had their cases reviewed in 2011/12, compared to 821,831 in 2010/11.
The reviews saved $20.3m every fortnight in 2011/12 - down from the $35.8m in fortnightly savings from compliance checks the year before.
The department identified $1.75b in new debts last financial year, and recovered $1.15bn of the money.
But it still has to recoup $2.68b in outstanding debt.
The department's general manager, Hank Jongen, yesterday said the debt was a low proportion of the $90b Centrelink paid out last financial year.
''Most commonly, the overpayments result from honest mistakes such as families underestimating annual income, people not alerting us to income from employment, changes in relationships or acquiring assets,'' he said.
Mr Jongen said Centrelink was contacting more people by letter, phone and text messages with ''friendly reminders'' to report their income.
He said Centrelink had prevented $44m worth of debt in the six months to December by contacting people 140,000 times.
People who refused to repay a debt had the money taken from their wages, tax refund or bank account - or were referred to debt collectors.
''When a customer has problems repaying a debt, the department organises a repayment agreement that ensures the customer is not put in financial hardship,'' Mr Jongen said.
heraldsun.com.au 13 May 2013
Another deliberate bout of misinformation from the 'authorities'.
Unemployment has soared,Centrelink has confirmed that the dole queue has risen 18.6% in the last year, but the official unemployment rate (currently for April 2013) is 0.1% lower at 5.5%.
The masses are being brazenly lied to, or more importantly given fraudulent information by the authorities, yet no one is doing anything about it.
While there are so many reports how the plebs cheat the system, not one report is made by the corporate media, how the system cheats the masses, not just the unemployed.
There is a policy to keep multi billion dollar corporate / government fraud under wraps.
Information has been obtained from reliable 'brethren that the real figure hovers around 16%, even though economists use a figure closer to 10%.
Much is to be gained by falsifying economic figures.
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