Welfare Fraud and Benefits

You should not be able to do that, the system should discourage it. But I think one likely has to tolerate this to some extent because trying to completely eliminate it will probably negatively affect people that rightfully claim such benefits, for example having to constantly prove that they are eligible.

Sounds like a problem related to means tested benefits which could to some extent be avoided by transitioning to a universal basic income which has no such strings for manipulating behavior.

many vulnerable people don't know what they can qualify for and what they can't. especially if they are not particularly literate as many adults are not - especially if they have a non-native background.many vulnerable people don't claim even if they know they qualify because the whole process is demeaning. sometimes when you have lost everything, you desperately hold onto your dignity, even if that isn't profit-maximising. real people (as opposed to idealised economic age

Tricky problem: how do you establish real-world identity to prevent welfare fraud?

That sounds like a automation problem. If you have an office dealing with UBI and unemployment in your neighborhood, the government can literally know their customer. The more people unemployed, the easier it will be to staff them.These people are pretending they're fighting fraud, when instead they're trying to reinvent government responsibilities/campaigns as passive income sources for 3rd party rent-seekers. Uber for welfare.

"After enough public backlash we've fixed the problem for this one person. We hope everyone stops bothering us so we can continue to not fix the problem because denying benefits is profitable to us."

Completely agree. The real scandal has been egregious unemployment claims fraud. Hundreds of millions from California alone, and multiple states have been targeted[0].[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/us/california-unemploymen...

It's possible the process is tuned to make sure most people who need it can get it even if that means some people can abuse the system and their fellow people.

Sounds a bit like Australia's illegal Robodebt scheme:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robodebt_schemeThe Australian system was simpler than the Dutch system, comparing social benefits paid with averaged tax-income from the ATO. It was a stupidly wrong calculation, the averaged income is much higher in people with inconsistent income than it actually is, so people were hound

"Opt-in" systems have disappointing levels of people who need the benefit but are too proud or scared to claim.Where possible avoid this problem and give the benefit to absolutely everybody. The administration is simpler, it will get to all those who need it, and if you become concerned Bill Gates is getting too much free childcare or whatever, feel free to increase his taxes accordingly.