Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 19:46:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: mirelle cohen <mirelle@unixg.ubc.ca>
To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu
cc: anso-news <anso-news@unixg.ubc.ca>, TEACHSOC@maple.lemoyne.edu
Subject: Re: welfare fraud (fwd)
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95q.971009192111.22242A-100000@netinfo1.ubc.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 1997 15:25:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: mirelle cohen <mirelle@unixg.ubc.ca>
To: system@poplar.lemoyne.edu
Subject: Re: welfare fraud

Hello all
I am currently teaching a second year undergraduate class entitled Ethnic
Relations.  Last night in the class on intersecting sites of oppression
(race, class, gender, disability) I mentioned that in Ontario the
provincial government implemented tough policies aimed at reducing welfare
fraud when in actuality the amount of fraud was calculated at roughly 1%.
Please excuse my lack of precision (I am writing this from my office and
the full citation is at home) but the source was Nancy Mandell's chapter
on Race, Class and Gender.  Anyway, as you can imagine, there were many
raised hands challengng the 1% statistic, and figures of around 15%
welfare fraud were bandied around.  I appreciate that many participants
are from the US and not Canada but does anyone have any stats /thoughts on
the level of welfare fraud in north America. I would like to go back to
the class next Tuesday better prepared to back up my data.  I am not,
however, trying to persuade them with numbers just trying to make sure
that the stats that I gave them are not horribly misleading.  would I also
be correct in assuming that in order to measure such fraud, 
anonymous self-disclosure reports would be the means of data collection (I
was asked how they come up with these figures!)

Thanks for your time

Mirelle cohen
Ph.D. Candidate, University of British Columbia