Preventing Welfare Fraud in Sweden. Interviews with Officials from the County Government of Kalmar and Skåne.

Abstract: Studies indicate that fraud is a growing issue in Sweden, outpacing law enforcement’s efforts to maintain it. There is limited research concerning welfare fraud, the aspects of prevention, and what processes have worked in Sweden. The prevention strategies need to progress towards this development considering that welfare fraud is a crime which affects every person in the welfare state. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate and analyse the prevention strategies against welfare fraud in Sweden through semi-structured interviews with six officials from the County Government of Kalmar and Skåne. The administration process was also investigated with the expectation to identify possible ways to develop preventive strategies. The Situational Action Theory was used as a tool to discuss and describe possible ways to prevent welfare fraud. The result showed that the tendency to report welfare fraud among officials is low. There is also a lack of cooperation between different governmental organisations and significant differences in the control work that varies between being thorough and absent. Although the county governments have started to examine the issue of welfare fraud, the results implicate that the issue is not as heavily prioritized as it needs to be. Future research is crucial. The controls and prevention strategies against welfare fraud within the County Governments needs to be developed further.