Welfare fraud: how the canton uncovers abuse of benefits

In 2025 the social inspectorate of the canton's social welfare section received 110 reports and closed 114 checks into possible fraud involving welfare benefits. In 64 cases, about 56% of the total, an actual abuse was confirmed, leading to administrative measures. Thirty of these cases were then referred to the public prosecutor's office.

Confirmed abuses account for around 1.2% of all recipients of welfare benefits, according to the social welfare section. The figure covers only confirmed cases and does not allow an estimate of how widespread the phenomenon really is.

Francesca Gaudenzi, head of the office for social welfare and integration, explains how a check gets triggered. Reviews can start from an external report or from elements that emerge during the routine handling of a case. The most common warning signs are information inconsistent with what a recipient has declared, unreported changes in economic or family circumstances, or doubts that arise during the review process itself.

Anyone can report a suspicious case, including through a form available on the canton's website. Each report is assessed individually: the inspectorate first checks whether it falls under its jurisdiction and whether there are enough grounds to proceed. Not every report leads to proceedings, and not every check ends with a confirmed abuse: in some cases, the situation is simply regularized administratively.

Who investigates, and what happens next

The review is carried out directly by the social inspectorate, which can request data from municipalities, municipal and cantonal police, the labour inspectorate office, judicial authorities and other cantonal administration offices. Depending on the complexity of the case, this can range up to interviews with the people involved or on-site checks. Timeframes vary widely: some checks close quickly, others take considerably longer.

Once abuse is confirmed, the authority can revise or stop the benefit and impose a sanction along with an order to repay the amounts wrongly received. If elements suggesting a criminal offence emerge, the case is referred to the public prosecutor's office.

The most frequent types of abuse in 2025 involved undeclared employment income and irregularities in the composition of the household unit used to calculate benefits. Gaudenzi notes that there is no typical profile of someone who commits fraud: the inspectorate's attention is on the facts that emerge from the checks, not on the characteristics of the people involved.

For privacy reasons, people who report a case do not receive feedback on the outcome of the review.