Social service fraud in Vorarlberg: increase by 60 percent alerts authorities!

Social service fraud in Vorarlberg: increase by 60 percent alerts authorities!

Vorarlberg, Österreich - in 2024 Vorarlberg recorded an alarming increase in social service fraud. The damage caused is around 1.01 million euros, which corresponds to an increase of more than 60 percent compared to the previous year. While 631,400 euros were still registered in 2023, the numbers have now increased significantly. This development is particularly worrying because Vorarlberg has the highest growth in the entire country alongside Styria. According to [VOL.AT] (https://www.vol.at/plus-60-pren-vorarlberg-massiven-tege-be-bei-sezialperekt fraud/9443348), the increase in Styria was almost 70 percent.

A look at the nationwide statistics shows that Austria registered a total of social service fraud in the amount of 23.36 million euros in 2024. This represents a decline of two million euros compared to the previous year, but the numbers are still above the level of previous years. Vorarlberg accounts for a significant part with about 4.3 percent of the total damage. A total of 5,007 suspects were recorded, including 1,400 people with Austrian citizenship and 3,607 with foreign citizenship.

Enlightenment and fraud types

The educational rate for social service fraud in Vorarlberg is remarkably high and is almost 100 percent. Of the a total of 4,865 crimes displayed, 4,841 could be clarified. Social service fraud is often due to incorrect or incomplete information about income, employment or residence and affects services such as unemployment benefit, minimum security and family allowance.

In this context, the role of Task Force was also pointed out social service fraud (Solbe), which was launched in 2018 by the Federal Criminal Police Office in order to act against this form of fraud. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, the increase in the number of cases and the damage is a clear indication of the need for this task force. Solbe has already discovered over 50 different fraud modes that are classified in seven main categories.

typical fraud practices

Typical forms of social service fraud include:

• Recording the minimum security despite sufficient assets
• abuse of pension benefits by sham residence
• Retizing family allowance
• forbidden stays abroad in the case of social benefits
• Access of basic care with false identities

The punishments for social service fraud range from a prison sentence of six months to ten years, while administrative penalties up to 4,000 euros can be imposed on the countries for violations of social welfare laws.