Social safety fraud: Where is the error within the system? | EUROtoday

Nobody can declare that there are too few raids in Germany. In Frankfurt alone they happen virtually weekly within the Bahnhofsviertel. Where one of many largest drug scenes in Europe continues to be situated. And in different massive cities, too, the safety authorities depend on the ability of officers who perform large-scale checks in concerted actions with the intention to get an concept of ​​the standing of sure varieties of crime. A brand new matter has lately emerged in Hesse: social crime.

In an motion that had been deliberate for a very long time, the police, public prosecutor’s workplace, tax investigators, municipal commerce and regulatory authorities in addition to customs authorities have focused companies by which, in accordance with their findings, there may be proof and even the mere suspicion that the abuse of social advantages is especially widespread there – above all arcades, hairdressers, barbershops, nail salons and kiosks. The raid follows a transparent calculation: nobody ought to really feel protected once they smuggle social advantages bypassing the state.

Police crime statistics present how pressing the difficulty is. A complete of 624 instances of social profit fraud have been recorded in Hesse in 2024, because the Ministry of the Interior in Wiesbaden introduced. This is a rise of virtually 20 % in comparison with the earlier yr. And that is simply the brightfield. The authorities imagine that a big proportion of the instances haven’t but been found.

The authorities could possibly be proper with this assumption. It is predicated on the concept that an unimaginable variety of small companies have arrange store in massive cities lately, that are capable of afford rents by way of providers or the sale of sure merchandise, usually in good inner-city places, which conventional retail can hardly afford anymore. It is simply logical that the state is taking a more in-depth have a look at these shops.

This is about rather more than simply the suspicion of particular person instances of undeclared work or social safety fraud. The query is whether or not there’s a system behind it. Or quite: a flaw within the system that makes it potential for the completely different types of social crime to be mixed with one another, inflicting the state to lose billions of euros yearly.

There is already discuss of “organized and structural abuse constellations,” as LKA President Daniel Muth says. This shouldn’t be potential in a functioning welfare state. What’s extra, it is about potential interfaces with organized crime, particularly when this small enterprise can be suspected of getting used for cash laundering. These are additionally findings that the Hessian investigators at the moment are persevering with to pursue.

They have to do this too. They are already being accused of “symbolic politics”. On nearer inspection, this accusation seems to be simply as absurd as that of “racial profiling,” which arose just because the vast majority of the managed firms are in international fingers. In the tip, nevertheless, the authorities should be measured by how sustainable this success truly is. Otherwise, irrespective of how good the strategy, it is nugatory.