{"id":326812,"date":"2025-12-05T10:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T10:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326812\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T10:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T10:18:11","slug":"millions-of-dollars-worth-of-fraud-alleged-to-have-happened-at-b-c-social-development-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326812\/","title":{"rendered":"Millions of dollars worth of fraud alleged to have happened at B.C. social development ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Global News investigation is revealing the many ways the Social Development and Poverty Reduction Ministry is exposed to potential fraud.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Whistleblowers have come forward with allegations that the ministry is handing out what could be millions of dollars to help people who don\u2019t really need it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s fraud<\/a>, a ton of fraud, and we\u2019re not being responsible with the funds and I don\u2019t think that the average person has any idea what\u2019s really going on,\u201d a whistleblower who has more than 20 years of experience in what is now called the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction told Global News.<\/p>\n

Global News has agreed to keep her identity anonymous.<\/p>\n

She said there is little accountability and managers are turning a blind eye.<\/p>\n

She added they are not asking for verification, \u201cmostly because of being overwhelmed with increasing caseload.\u201d She said there are also \u201cpolitical concerns\u201d meaning \u201ctrying to take back monies or hold clients accountable, there\u2019s very little appetite to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are strategies put in place to complete the work faster, which means we are letting certain things go, such as proper verification.\u201d<\/p>\n

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More and more people are applying for assistance in B.C. every day and staff are being encouraged by bosses to just issue cheques to all people, often skipping proper verification.<\/p>\n

\u201cClients can be anyone in all walks of life, have mental health or adopt addiction issues, to people who run businesses within our community and are financially successful,\u201d the whistlerblower said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s people who have much more money in their bank account than I do or probably anyone on this block.\u201d<\/p>\n

Global News has obtained documents, rife with numerous examples, flagged by multiple ministry staff this past year alone.<\/p>\n

Applicant one had more than $100,000 cash, disqualifying them for disability assistance. This does not include their house, vehicle, and some investments. So they dumped $30,000 on their son\u2019s annual private school tuition. The government check was approved, with no repercussions for disposing of assets.<\/p>\n

Applicant two overpaid almost $10,000 in shelter allowance they never should have received after failing to tell the ministry their financial situation had vastly improved. Three years passed and the ministry never checked.<\/p>\n

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If approved, the penalty is repayment of $20 a month, with no interest, and more than 41 years to return the money owed to taxpayers.<\/p>\n

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Applicant three received more than $6,000 a month in government money for the family, minus shelter expenses. There\u2019s almost $5,000 left in the bank every month, but the client is still asking for more money in crisis supplements to cover food and clothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take an oath of employment that we\u2019re going to be careful fiscally,\u201d the whistlerblower said, adding that it feels like she is lying and being asked to do something that\u2019s not fair or to be held accountable to a certain measure, but then incapable of fulfilling it.<\/p>\n

About a quarter of a million people receive income and disability assistance every month in B.C. with the projected budget being $1.6 billion over the next three years.<\/p>\n

The ministry\u2019s data shows the number of cases are rising and the whistleblower says the current situation is untenable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to really put an emphasis on employment and supports to people to put them in better situations to move them towards independence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the goal of the program, and we\u2019ve just moved so far away from that. I would like to see us properly verify eligibility and really help those people who truly are in need.\u201d<\/p>\n

-with files from Rumina Daya<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Global News investigation is revealing the many ways the Social Development and Poverty Reduction Ministry is exposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[144475,20403,43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-326812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bc-ministry-of-social-development","tag-fraud","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}