http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3180621a10,00.html
ANNA CLARIDGE
"Half of the country's 6500-strong prison population were caught wrongly receiving welfare benefits last year, costing taxpayers more than $1.8 million.
Figures released by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) show 3762 inmates continued to receive a benefit while behind bars last year, only to be caught by a hi-tech data-matching system.
Twenty-two per cent of false claimants were on the sickness benefit, raising questions from Opposition MPs over why the Government paid out a weekly sickness benefit to someone fit enough to commit crime.
Prisoners are not eligible for welfare payments and are required to notify the ministry of any change in their circumstances.
Many fail to tell the ministry they have been put in jail, as required under their benefit contract, leaving a weekly data-matching programme run through the ministry and the Corrections Department to pick up false claimants. "
