Crackdown on cross-border welfare fraud

A MAJOR crackdown has been launched by investigators with the Department of Social and Family Affairs after a surge in cross-border welfare scams.

Rogue welfare claimants have been targeted after benefit claims rocketed in border counties in recent months.

The department said the so-called “welfare tourism” was taking place where people employed and living in the North were crossing into social welfare offices in the south and claiming to be living and looking for work here.