Partners of DPB fraudsters may be targeted to make repayments

Associate Social Development Minister Chester Borrows, who has responsibility for welfare fraud, said there was a gender imbalance with the repayment of domestic purposes benefit (DPB) fraud because most people on that benefit were women.

If a woman receiving the DPB was in a relationship, her partner was benefiting from that fraud.

“We are looking at how we can treat that person as a party to the offense because it is completely unfair that the woman has to carry the full weight of that debt,” he told Parliament’s social services committee.