"Policing Welfare Fraud charts and interrogates the suite of measures ostensibly designed to combat welfare fraud and non-compliance. In Australia, which serves as the empirical focus of this book, these strategies include: stringent ID checks, pre-emptive data surveillance technologies including the infamous and illegal 'robodebt' program, a dedicated fraud tip hotline, and an 'intelligence-led' fraud investigation framework. Drawing on original documentary and interview data, including interviews with fraud investigators, this book unpacks the logics that underpin these anti-fraud initiatives with a focus on how these initiatives are imbued with logics and practices more readily associated with the criminal justice system. The central argument of the book is that the emergence of contemporary welfare compliance regimes represents a form 'governing through fraud' in which the threat of welfare fraud has effectively necessitated a regime of criminalisation within the welfare state. This has been enabled by broader processes of neoliberal welfare reform, which has cast suspicion over all welfare use. The overall effect of this regime is to restrict access to social security, punish welfare recipients and stigmatise welfare use. Policing Welfare Fraud also highlights points of contradiction and multiplicity in the enactment of specific welfare compliance initiatives, including attempts by welfare officials to moderate or reformulate these strategies 'on the ground'. These findings demonstrate that the criminalisation of welfare is neither uniform nor inexorable, and that more progressive welfare reform is possible. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, politics and those interested in the policing of welfare recipients"--

"Government assistance in the United States requires that recipients meet certain criteria and continue to maintain their eligibility so that benefits are paid to the "truly needy." Welfare is regarded with such suspicion in this country that considerable resources are spent to police the boundaries of eligibility. Even minor infractions of the many rules can cause people to be dropped from these programs. In this book Spencer Headworth gives us the first study of the structure of fraud control in the welfare system, the relations between different levels of governmental agencies, from federal to local, and their enforcement practices. Policing Welfare shows how the enforcement regime of welfare is trained on those living in poverty furthering their stigmatization and often deepening racial disparities in our society"--

The potential impact of law enforcement agencies on welfare fraud in California metropolitan counties by the year 2000 is examined. On the basis of three different methodologies, it is determined that most law enforcement agencies are not involved in welfare investigations and fail to understand how the welfare system works and the components of welfare fraud. Expert panels forecast several emerging trends and events that will affect law enforcement over the next decade: the number of people who receive welfare benefits, identification of welfare fraud cases, the use of new technology to track and identify welfare users, and the availability of training classes for law enforcement personnel. Events forecasted to have a strong probability of occurring include installation of an electronic identification system which connects all welfare offices in California, the California budget reaching a $15 billion deficit, county task force forming to investigate welfare fraud cases, and the Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training mandating 8 hours of instruction in welfare fraud investigation. A normative scenario was used to develop a strategic plan that allows law enforcement to have a positive impact on welfare fraud in the future.

Policing Welfare Fraud charts and interrogates the suite of measures ostensibly designed to combat welfare fraud and non-compliance. In Australia, which serves as the empirical focus of this book, these strategies include stringent ID checks, pre-emptive data surveillance technologies including the infamous and illegal ‘robodebt’ programme, a dedicated fraud hotline and an ‘intelligence-led’ fraud investigation framework. Drawing on original documentary and interview data, including interviews with fraud investigators, this book unpacks the logics that underpin these anti-fraud initiatives with a focus on how these initiatives are imbued with logics and practices more readily associated with the criminal justice system. The central argument of the book is that the emergence of contemporary welfare compliance regimes represents a form of ‘governing through fraud’ in which the threat of welfare fraud has effectively necessitated a regime of criminalisation within the welfare state. This has been enabled by a broader process of neoliberal welfare reform, which has cast suspicion over all welfare use. The overall effect of this regime is to restrict access to social security, punish welfare recipients and stigmatise welfare use. Policing Welfare Fraud also highlights points of contradiction and multiplicity in the enactment of specific welfare compliance initiatives, including attempts by welfare officials to moderate or reformulate these strategies ‘on the ground’. These findings demonstrate that the criminalisation of welfare is neither uniform nor inexorable, and that more progressive welfare reform is possible. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, politics and those interested in the policing of welfare recipients.