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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Social Security Act 2018

Enforcement: sanctions and offences - Offences

291: Offences: spouse or partner knowingly benefiting from excess amount obtained by beneficiary's fraud

You could also call this:

“Crime for benefiting from your partner's benefit fraud”

You can commit a crime if you are married to or in a relationship with someone who gets extra money by cheating the system. This crime happens if you benefit from the extra money, even if you didn’t cheat yourself. You don’t have to know exactly how much money it was or how your partner got it, but you must know or suspect that it was obtained wrongly.

The extra money could be any payment, credit, or advance that your partner wasn’t supposed to get. It’s considered fraud if your partner tricked someone to get the money or if they were found guilty of certain crimes related to getting the money unfairly.

These crimes include lying to get benefits, stealing or misusing documents, tricking people to get money, making fake documents, or changing real documents to deceive others.

If you are found guilty of this crime, you could go to jail for up to 12 months, be fined up to $5,000, or both.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6783751.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal law
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290: Offences: false statements, misleading, or attempting to mislead, to receive or continue to receive benefits, or

“It's against the law to lie or trick the government to get benefits”

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292: Offence of demanding or accepting fee or other consideration in relation to grant of benefit, or

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Part 5 Enforcement: sanctions and offences
Offences

291Offences: spouse or partner knowingly benefiting from excess amount obtained by beneficiary's fraud

  1. A person (the spouse or partner) commits an offence if the person—

  2. is a spouse or partner of a person (the beneficiary) who obtains an excess amount by fraud; and
    1. benefits directly or indirectly from the amount or a part of it knowing that, or being reckless about whether, the amount or part is an amount or part—
      1. in excess of the amount to which the beneficiary is by law entitled or to which the beneficiary has no entitlement; and
        1. obtained by the beneficiary by fraud.

        2. Subsection (1)(b) applies to the amount or part even if the spouse or partner—

        3. does not benefit from it knowingly; and
          1. does not know at all or exactly its value; and
            1. does not know, or (as the case requires) is not reckless about, the precise way in which it was obtained by the beneficiary by fraud.

              1. The beneficiary obtains an excess amount for the purposes of subsection (1) if the beneficiary obtains any payment, or receives any credit or advance, in excess of the amount to which the beneficiary is by law entitled or to which the beneficiary has no entitlement.

              2. The excess amount is obtained by the beneficiary by fraud for the purposes of subsection (1) if—

              3. the beneficiary obtained that amount by fraud; or
                1. the beneficiary is convicted of a specified offence in respect of obtaining that amount.

                  1. In subsection (4)(b), specified offence means an offence against section 290 (offences: false statements, misleading, or attempting to mislead, to receive or continue to receive benefits) of this Act, or an offence against all or any of the following provisions of the Crimes Act 1961:

                  2. section 228 (dishonestly taking or using document):
                    1. sections 240 and 241 (obtaining by deception or causing loss by deception):
                      1. section 256(1) and (2) (forgery):
                        1. section 257 (using forged documents):
                          1. section 258 (altering, concealing, destroying, or reproducing documents with intent to deceive):
                            1. section 259 (using altered or reproduced document with intent to deceive).

                              1. Subsections (4) and (5) do not limit—

                              2. the generality of the references in subsection (1) to fraud; or
                                1. the operation of section 49 (conviction as evidence in criminal proceedings) of the Evidence Act 2006.

                                  1. A person who commits an offence under this section is liable on conviction to a penalty that is either or both:

                                  2. imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months:
                                    1. a fine not exceeding $5,000.

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