Daycare Ripoff Continues

[Redneck]

Another scam still being committed under the Coalition, but all they are worried about is bashing the unemployed


We need political daycare for scarce taxpayers’ funds

The Australian
12:00AM October 5, 2016


An iron law of politics and economics is that when governments give away millions of dollars to fund products or services, some people will try to rort it. This is a trait of the human condition. But both major parties refuse to learn how to deal with this reality. Not five years on from the overpriced school halls of the Orwellian-named Building the Education Revolution and the fly-by-night operators, rushed installations and deadly consequences of the home insulation scheme, our politicians and bureaucrats are confronting another challenge to rein in the rip-offs. This time it is childcare, with $1 billion pilfered across two years.

As social affairs writer Rick Morton revealed yesterday, family daycare providers have defrauded taxpayers by claiming funding for children who don’t exist or hours of care that weren’t supplied. At least 13 people have been charged with fraud and assets have been seized. There are even concerns that some rorted funds have been used to fund Islamic terrorist groups. The government has bolstered compliance checks significantly, claiming to conduct six times as many checks as Labor. And federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham is considering a taskforce to improve accountability further.

This is a reasonable response, but taxpayers have every right to think that, so far, this performance is simply not good enough. Especially with a budget deep in deficit, it is scandalous that a scheme can be defrauded of about $500 million a year — salient lessons in schemes of the past are legion, for everything from solar rebates to vocational training.

Annual federal childcare funding has exploded from $1bn to $8bn across the past decade and it is still rising. With payment, management and compliance measures spread between state and federal governments, the system is complex and bureaucratic. The sector includes public, not-for-profit and private operators, and the family daycare component has grown rapidly. In Victoria such services — where accredited operators supply childcare in their homes — have expanded 303 per cent across the past four years, mainly in the for-profit sector. In Queensland and Western Australia more than half of provider applications have been rejected. Senator Birmingham claims to have saved more than $450m through recent reforms. Yet clearly this system needs tighter control. The hard-earned dollars of taxpayers are being ripped off.

“You have got to have constant vigilance on this sort of stuff,” Scott Morrison said yesterday. “It frustrates the government as it does taxpayers and that is why we are clamping down on it very, very hard,” the Treasurer added, defending Senator Birmingham’s remedial efforts on childcare and vocational training. Family daycare was designed to provide flexibility for parents but scammers were “mucking it up” for everybody. “That is why we are tightening the rules … the compliance measures are significantly greater than they used to be and we are catching the crooks,” Mr Morrison said.

But, more than that, governments must learn to deliver schemes and distribute services without opening up extensive rorting. Paying suppliers rather than customers may be a fault, not to mention the bane of our federation: the spread of responsibility across two levels of government. At its core, perhaps we have a problem of politicians so eager to offer new entitlements and to keep voters happy that they are not sufficiently focused on what should be a higher priority: avoiding waste and inefficiency in the taxpayers’ money entrusted to them.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion ... 1475632378

[Redneck]

20 comments


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Colin
Colin
32 minutes ago

Who is responsible for these rorts ? Why no action? Heads should roll. Where is the razor gang? Sack them if

they are not doing their job.
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Marg
Marg
1 hour ago

Childcare facilities need to have unannounced audit visits by standards teams such as occurs in other organizations. It is unbelievable how this could happen in Australia. All public servants involved should be demoted.
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John
John
1 hour ago

puts me in mind of a certain episode of yes minister!
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1MargLikeReply
Margaret
Margaret
1 hour ago

On a prawn trawler earning income for the nation, the government wants to know how many times the workers change their gloves and tissue boxes, but it seems there is no problem running a government funded daycare centre with no kids! Give me a break! Our nation is a joke and going down the drain together with billions of wasted taxpayer dollars!!
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2MargdonLikeReply
Margaret
Margaret
2 hours ago

The public servants in charge of monitoring these non existent child care facilities should be sacked forthwith. This is total incompetence and shows a disregard to taxpayers money that is breathtaking and verging on corruption. How can it happen that funds are given out and no kids in evidence? Mind boggling and beyond belief!! Do gooders bending the rules because the person in charge was a refugee? Talk about warped views!!
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5ColinYvonneJohnErzsebetLikeReply
Thomas
Thomas
2 hours ago

The rorts are bad enough. The apparent direction of the rorted funds is even worse. Some see Australia as a vulnerable plum to be plucked. Our governments are failing us.
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6ColinYvonneJohnErzsebetLikeReply
Angela
Angela
3 hours ago

On 3/5/2015 Channel 9 - Today Tonight aired a hard-hitting program about the problems in the childcare industry. I would like to know why something wasn't done about it back then? Is the government asleep at the wheel.


If you want to see the program you can google it.
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2ColinScottLikeReply
Maureen
Maureen
3 hours ago

It appears under this model that one can set up a family day care business, and start claiming from the government immediately. There is no need to provide any plans, or details of children that can be verified. I would expect that the homes of the 'educators' should have been examined and that the 'educators' had the necessary qualifications and police checks before any government funding was paid out.


In view of this debacle, I would hope that the main perpetrator of the scam is forbidden to operate any other business until the amount defraud is repaid.


No wonder Australia has a deficit.
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9ColinYvonneErzsebetMargaretLikeReply
Calvin
Calvin
4 hours ago

The fraud, waste, deceit and rorting we see is the tip of the iceberg. This editorial's final sentence captures the main problem: to win votes, politicians bribe their electorates: give-aways, entitlements, subsidies and endless carrots with no stick. Do not despair, however. There is a solution that is certain to work: every rort, every fraudulent scheme, every dollar that is picked from the pockets of taxpayers MUST be repaid to consolidated revenue by the politicians responsible for the legislation. That is the ultimate responsibility and the ultimate solution. The rorts will stop overnight. You can bank on it.
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8ErzsebetMargaretDrAKasaurusDwightLikeReply
Stephen
Stephen
4 hours ago

Billions defrauded! Where are the checks and balances? There aren't any! Senior bureaucrats should be called to answer for this and yet no mention who was overseeing this absolute mismanagment of a grand scale.

The govt education CGS funding is another 'killing field' for rorters waiting to be exposed where shock horror reactions will be replicated from overpaid, underperforming, lazy ministers and bureaucrats firmly embedded in the taxpayer (us) financed political trough. When will our elected leaders be called upon to lead?
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12ColinJohnErzsebetLloydLikeReply
Peter
Peter
5 hours ago

Fraud is a crime in every state and territory isn't it ! The idea that the criminal law does not apply here, or is not going to be applied here, is totally unacceptable. These people need to be prosecuted.
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19ColinYvonneJohnErzsebetLikeReply
Michael
Michael
6 hours ago

How hard would it be to have unannounced spot checks on these day care centres to see what is really happening. It seems every time a government gets involved in service provision, it turns to custard and the taxpayer foots the bill. Surely all these public servants who administer these schemes can't be totally incompetent.

Michael of Sevilla
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23ColinYvonneJohnDrAKasaurusLikeReply
Donald
Donald
5 hours ago

@Michael haha, yes they can.
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12MargaretDwightScottLloydLikeReply
John
John
7 hours ago

"The Government has bolstered compliance checks significantly, claiming to conduct six times as many checks as Labor".......so how many is it now.......6? ....12?......18?......or 24? :
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10LloydEmilyNadaBrankaLikeReply
Stephen
Stephen
4 hours ago

It's all smoke. Nobody is checking anything!
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6ErzsebetDwightLloydEmilyLikeReply
Donald
Donald
9 hours ago

" An iron law of politics and economics is that when governments give away millions of dollars to fund products or services, some people will try to rort it." Which means the whole idea of these schemes is suspect, better policing is avoiding the issue which is that this sort of scheme is simply bad public policy, period. Take away all childcare subsidies, reduce income taxes by an equivalent amount and let us decide who offers value for money.
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18JohnErzsebetLloydEmilyLikeReply
Erzsebet
Erzsebet
9 hours ago

Naive Australians are been pickpocketed by the unscrupulous, unfortunately it's not mere change, but billions and billions of $.

Wake up State and federal Governments, and do what it takes to get all this money back!
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11EmilyNadasueBrankaLikeReply
Lloyd
Lloyd
11 hours ago

I am utterly disgusted by what was revealed in yesterday's article - “$1.6m handed to daycare business operator without proof of kids”.
Disgusted that someone has the audacity to so blatantly rip off Australian citizens/taxpayers. Disgusted that that person is a refugee who has been accepted into the Australian community and given a chance at a new life (paid for by taxpayers). And perhaps even more disgusted that all this took place so easily right under the noses of bureaucratic in Canberra (also paid by taxpayers) even though some of them supposedly visited this man and his “child care centre”.

Doesn’t anyone involved in this pathetic situation have any sense of what is right or wrong? Surely the system can’t be that ridiculously open to exploitation or is it just “political correctness” gone mad where certain categories of people become untouchable for fear of causing offence? Truly gobsmacking.
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45YvonneLesleyMargaretLeeLikeReply
Peter
Peter
11 hours ago

They were keen on 'diversity' it seems. Celebrate it. You're being enriched.
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14MargaretThomasCathDwightLikeReply
John
John
7 hours ago

@Lloyd "never let a good turn go unpunished."

[Redneck]

How can a refugee outsmart a whole department?
Herald Sun
October 5, 2016 8:10am

Politicians are a menace when they spend our money on handouts.

And so a Sudanese refugee can get $1.6 million for child care services to no children that any public servant has ever seen. And the money seems gone:

In the 16 months Ruben Majok Aleer Aguer ran a family daycare business from his Canberra home, he received $1.6 million in federal government money, even though multiple officials sent to do compliance checks never spotted a child confirmed to be in care.

Mr Aguer, a church youth minister and former ACT Education Department ­staffer who came to Australia from a Sudanese refugee camp, received $100,000 a month in childcare benefits for 74 children whose existence was never verified by government and 21 ­educators.

The Australian can reveal there is no explicit requirement in federal legislation for a care provider to actually look after children. The legislation deals mainly with the qualifications of educators and requirements to display approval information...

Mr Aguer told The Australian yesterday he would fight the cancellation, though he conceded he did not have the correct number of co-ordinators with signed contracts. “I’m still demanding for my licence to be issued back again,” he said at his home. “They (the money) come through me and I pay them to the carers, who were looking after the kids. There was not any case against children — abuse — or anything raised against me."...

The tribunal found that, after 14 months in operation, they heard from only one of the 21 educators who Mr Aguer claimed worked for him and she did not have an employment contract.

Then this kicker:

Mr Aguer plans to reopen.... Any effort to recover the $1.6m is the responsibility of the federal government. The Australian is not aware of any proceedings.

(Thanks to reader William.)

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andre ... 1475632862

[Outlaw Yogi]

Front page of today's Australian has an article about a bunch of Mozzies running a child care scam to fund Islamic State ... meanwhile official mouth pieces will keep telling us the vast majority of Mozzies are good law abiding citizens.

How can a refugee outsmart a whole department?

Simple, the public service is full of highly educated (indoctrinated) idiots!

[mantra]

Simple, the public service is full of highly educated (indoctrinated) idiots!

They sure are.

It's not only day care - it's the private job network as well and the private training colleges who have the biggest scams going.

These are some of the reasons why we're in so much debt. Australia is the place where money grows on trees.

Biggest rort in Australia's history

THE federal government says it is willing to consider a wide-scale audit of training providers to weed out rorting of the $1.6 billion VET FEE-HELP loans scheme with inflated course fees.

It comes as evidence emerges of massive pricing discrepancies between fee-for-service and VET FEE-HELP courses being offered by a number of registered training organisations (RTOs), with taxpayers forking out up to 400 per cent premiums to line the pockets of training companies with government loans, many of which will never be repaid.

The deregulation of the VET FEE-HELP scheme has led to a massive increase in for-profit, private education providers and an industry-wide decline in quality.

According to the Education Department, just over one quarter (26 per cent) of students who enrolled in VET FEE-HELP courses in 2011 finished within three years. Completion rates for online diplomas were abysmal, with just seven per cent of students completing their course.

The government bill for VET FEE-HELP loans blew out by $315 million last year to $1.615 billion, representing 189,000 students at 254 training providers.

Modelling by the Grattan Institute estimates 40 per cent of those loans will never be repaid as those students’ income will never rise above the repayment threshold of $53,000, meaning taxpayers will wear that cost.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/co ... fbfdb6d66d

[Outlaw Yogi]

It's not only day care - it's the private job network as well...

Quite so. In 2013 I was on the dole, so had to deal with an employment agency.
In January 2014 I got a job on a citrus orchard, off my own bat. In fact employment agencies have never got me employment at any time I've been on the dole.
Every month some woman I've never met kept ringing me while at work. I rang back to see who it was and she explained she was from the agency I dealt with. After a few months of this I asked "Why are you interrupting me at work?".
This woman replied "Oh I'm just checking up to see how you're going as one of our clients and to make sure everything Ok with the job".
I said "But I'm not on the dole".
She waffled some shit excuse and I replied "I'm busy, bye"
I thought "Bet they're running a scam".

Six months later when the fruit ran out and work ceased I found my suspicion to be spot on.
When I went on the dole I had to do work for the dole immediately, not after 6 months as Centrelink stipulates. Meaning the entire time I was working the employment agency was using my name to claim financial benefit from the Dept of Employment.

Rather than kick up a stink, I signed the agreement 6 months early requiring me to do work for the dole. Then saved it as dirt.
Next time I went on the dole the agency staff member I dealt with said "The government's changed the rules, so there's no six months wait anymore, you'll have to do work for the dole straight away".
I replied "Last time I did work for the dole it cost me at least $20 a day in fuel and my ute was being run in to the ground because the money I need to fix it went on fuel and food for work for the dole. So the only way I'm going to do it is if you get Centrelink to pay me an extra $80"
The employment agent said "That's not going to happen".
I said "Well you better put on a bus or pay my taxi fares".
She replied "We don't do that".
I answered "Then I'm not doing it".
She claimed "But you have to".
I continued "It'll make my ute un-road worthy, so if you persist, I'll take the ute off the road"

Then I spoke with the maintainance manager at the museum I'd done work for the dole at previously and let him know I had dirt on the employment agency concerning their false claims on my behalf while I was working, and if they pushed the issue I would write to the Dept of Employment.
I said "If they push this I'll report them and they'll all be on the dole".

Another employment agency got caught out doing the same fraud so their contract was cancelled and they no longer exist.

Soon afterwards I was told the computer had "chucked me out of work for the dole" so I didn't have to do it anymore. Meaning, using their fraud to black mail them was effective.

... and the private training colleges who have the biggest scams going.

When I was doing work for the dole I met a young bloke who paid $25k to do a business course.
Last time I saw him he was behind the counter at a BP service station.

Before that I'd seen an add in the local rag from some mob offering business course credentials with the claim "Because he'd done our business course he was able to start his own business".
Which I presume would give the uninformed the impression you need a business degree to be allowed to start a business.
I though "What a scam, I started a business with $3k and metal industries skills".

These are some of the reasons why we're in so much debt. Australia is the place where money grows on trees.

Money does grow on trees, but growing them attracts helicopters and blue uniforms.

[mantra]

It's not only day care - it's the private job network as well...

Quite so. In 2013 I was on the dole, so had to deal with an employment agency.
In January 2014 I got a job on a citrus orchard, off my own bat. In fact employment agencies have never got me employment at any time I've been on the dole.
Every month some woman I've never met kept ringing me while at work. I rang back to see who it was and she explained she was from the agency I dealt with. After a few months of this I asked "Why are you interrupting me at work?".
This woman replied "Oh I'm just checking up to see how you're going as one of our clients and to make sure everything Ok with the job".
I said "But I'm not on the dole".
She waffled some shit excuse and I replied "I'm busy, bye"
I thought "Bet they're running a scam".

Six months later when the fruit ran out and work ceased I found my suspicion to be spot on.
When I went on the dole I had to do work for the dole immediately, not after 6 months as Centrelink stipulates. Meaning the entire time I was working the employment agency was using my name to claim financial benefit from the Dept of Employment.

This has been going on for years. The job network doesn't help people get work, but they get a bonus from the government for every "client" who finds employment - even though most of them find their own jobs. They also get an ongoing commission for every week that person stays in the job. That's why they pester people to send a copy of their earnings not only to Centrelink, but to them also even if their client has only been on unemployment benefits for a few weeks. If a person doesn't comply with their demands - they can notify Centrelink who will terminate the client's payments, even if the job is only casual and short term. This means that if there is no work or only a few hours work a week - it is almost impossible to get an income supplement unless you give into the job network's demands and scams. They can lie and notify Centrelink that the client hasn't complied and because Centrelink has so many casual and inexperienced staff now, Centrelink will cut a person off for no other reason than the say so of the job network. Trying to rectify this is impossible for any person with a low IQ.

Another problem for the recipients is that most of the time they can't get through by phone and have to visit an office where they are always short staffed and often uninformed. Then there are so many loopholes to jump through that a person with mental or physical disabilities has little hope of getting help. This is why there are so many homeless people or relatives are forced to support them just so they can survive.

This is great for the government though. It makes their job figures look better, but it does nothing for the desperate "client" who is often left with no income for long periods of time.

This work for the dole sounds like a good idea in theory, but when they send someone who is trying to survive on $200 a week to some area 50 kms away where there is no public transport - it is impossible for many of them to get there so it also results in an end to their income support.

It's become very difficult for younger people now. Probably not my generation who didn't know unemployment benefits existed so did the hard yards when we were young, but for those people today where there is so much competition for just one job - it's no surprise suicide is on the increase.