@androcat Talked to a lady who worked for the tax authority here in Norway once. She told me straight away that welfare fraud is such a minor phenomenon that it has zero effect on the welfare budget. She followed that up by saying, "So we need to decide what kind of society we want - one where we're so afraid that someone might get some help they didn't qualify for, at the risk of depriving many others who need that help? Or one where we help folks through tough times and help them become tax payers again?"
A year or two later, I read a study that showed a significant amount of "welfare fraud" cases are folks who genuinely believed they qualified.
The more accessible benefits are, the better for everyone, ultimately.

@souvlaki @androcat when I first moved to the UK, I was sent a benefits application because I qualified for a council tax reduction by living alone. Because of some quirk of my immigration status, I couldn’t just tick a box online, but I also wasn’t eligible to claim unemployment benefits while I looked for work. The form had me fill in all kinds of irrelevant stuff so I was terrified they’d try to send me benefits and I’d be deported for fraud, so I never bothered and overpaid my tax instead 🙃