The cost of benefit fraud

According to the NZ Herald:

"Benefit fraud cost taxpayers a record $22.6 million last year, tripling from $7.5 million five years ago."

The source for the first part of the quote is here.

The second is here

 However, according to MSD:

Fraud prosecutions

The numbers of prosecutions decreased in 2010/2011

This reduction followed a slight increase between 2008/2009 and 2009/2010.
Patterns in the numbers of prosecutions may reflect patterns in the volume of cases investigated. Prosecution numbers are expected to stabilise in 2011/2012.

It's odd that prosecutions have decreased but the "cost to the taxpayer" is escalating.

2007/08 1,028
2008/09  735
2009/10 789
2010/11 690

So the assumption must be that the value of the debt per case has risen significantly. And there have been some biggies.

Anyway, my point is, telling us benefit fraud is costing the taxpayer $22.6 million is an understatement. In 2010/11 the established value of overpayments due to fraud and abuse investigations was nearly $40 million; a further (if I am interpreting the data correctly) $34 million in overpayments was established through data matching programmes and it costs around $37 million to fund integrity services.