Better and better contact

Task force: the net against fraudsters is getting tighter

Summit meeting against social fraud: District governor Markus Peham, deputy district police commander Manfred Holzbrecher, team leader Markus Spießmaier and provincial officer Josef Dötzl (from left).(Bild: Klaus Schindler)

Social fraud is anything but a trivial offense, and people in both urban and rural areas are not immune to it. In order to track down the cheeky perpetrators even more effectively, the institutions are increasingly coordinating with each other. This is bearing fruit, particularly at district level.

Social fraud knows no borders - it does not stop at Lower Austria or the Waldviertel district of Zwettl. Since 2019, Josef Dötzl has been involved in the Social Fraud Task Force (Solbe) - the provincial head is well aware that the networking of all authorities at district level contributes greatly to the detection of crimes.

More than 2000 offenses
Most of the cases involve minimum income, unemployment benefit, emergency unemployment assistance, care allowance, disability pension or even Covid short-time work promotion. More than 2,000 offenses were processed in the five years, resulting in losses of 22 million euros. In the Zwettl district, fraud amounting to €280,000 was solved.

"There is a high potential for crime here. Our main focus is on offenses where the person lives abroad and illegally receives social benefits in Austria," explained Manfred Holzbrecher, deputy district police chief, at the networking meeting of the task forces against social fraud in Zwettl.