There’s an estimation done in Germany every year. And the result is always that only around 4% of the the people on welfare abuse it. Compared to the damage that is done to the state by clever tax evasion of super rich people, these are peanuts. But going after these 4% of welfare abusers is of course easier so that’s why they put a lot effort into it.
It is kind of strange how much more of a visceral reaction people have to the idea of poor people cheating the system, compared to rich people cheating the system. Logically, it seems like the latter should get people a lot more riled up, which I guess speaks to the power of their propaganda.
It’s because people have strange hang ups about how “a victim” is supposed to be, I think. That is why many people who start helping drug addicts and the homeless are often disillusioned at first, when they find out that many of these people can be quite the assholes.
The same goes for those who are rather at the short end of the stick themselves and actually have to live in poor neighborhoods. It’s easier to be virtue signalling about how you supposedly care for poor people than actually living with them.
People need to separate “being good” from deserving help. That would make a lot of problems much easier to work on.
And how are they supposed to get these statistics?
As far as I know, they make these estimates on the basis of how many sanctions and repayments the Job Center imposes. But since it’s not easy at all to get by these people and the effort isn’t worth it, there is no way to say how many people are doing it.
But if you try to convince people to think smart(er) about the problem, it doesn’t help to deny the reality they are actually living in. It would make more sense to show how it’s the employer who makes profit from tax evasion.