Social Security and Fraud

Combating fraud is one of the issues heavily debated on the European agenda. Many administrations active in the field of social protection have developed a proactive policy in order to combat fraud in the field of social security. Some states have already implemented an overall anti-fraud plan, that resulted in  intensified cooperation across administrative units as well as in cross-sharing of  data and experience.

Combating fraud is by some states mainly considered as a tool to raise additional financial means. Whereas other states are still in the phase of discussion on how to embark upon concrete techniques of fraud combat and how to balance concretely the major objective of the fraud combat - the overall public interest - with limits that find their origin in privacy protection and alike. 

With this conference we would like to bring the discussions on a level where theoretical assessment on social security fraud is brought in connection with real examples of fraud combat, and where best practices can be discussed across members of academy, legal practice and administration.  We try to shed a light on fundamental questions, such as:

• Which different types of fraud one can discern at both income and benefit side and which factors lead to fraud, and social security fraud in particular
• The stigmatizing effect the combating of fraud can have among  beneficiaries
• To what extent preventive policies can effectively lead to fraud reduction (such as good logistics; efficient designs of benefit schemes)