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Business & Money

Whiplash-injured Swede loads crates of drink

Published: 15 Mar 12 07:01 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/39672/20120315/

When officers from Försäkringskassan, the Swedish agency that deals with social benefits, did a spot check at a customs ferry control in Oskarshamn, in southern Sweden, they found more than thirty people on some form of invalidity benefit returning from an alcohol run to Germany.

One such was a woman in her forties, who has been receiving sickness benefits since 2004, when a car crash gave her such severe whiplash problems that she is unable to work.

The woman was driving a car carrying 600 litres of alcohol, where four of the vehicle's six seats had been removed to accommodate the alcohol she had purchased in Germany.

In the car was also a younger man, without a driver’s licence, who had helped her load the liquor at the purchase point.

The car was carrying too much weight and the customs officer asked the driver to unload some of the alcohol.

According to the Försäkringskassan inspectors, the couple then proceeded to unload the car together. The woman claimed it was because the younger man had a “bad back” and that one of these trips had her bedridden for days afterwards due to her condition.

Among the other thirty or so ferry passengers, the inspectors found a woman who was unable to work as she claimed she couldn't leave her apartment due to psychological problems, several on sickness benefits. and some on parental leave benefits, but without the other parent or the child with them.

Not one admitted to having purchased the alcohol for reasons other than personal use.

The Local (news@thelocal.se)

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08:51 March 15, 2012 by kinan
what to expect from people who can sit at home and get paid while living in a country with a very high booz prices !!
09:02 March 15, 2012 by Frobobbles
A young man without a driver's license! This is outrage! The public will not stand for such antics!
09:05 March 15, 2012 by StockholmSam
The penalty for this should be permanent removal of all socially funded benefits with no chance for access in the future. Such a penalty would make many cheaters pause before following through on these types of fraud.
09:08 March 15, 2012 by lewni
#3: i'll sign that petition !
09:21 March 15, 2012 by libertarianism
The State continually fails in its assessment of illness and disability. Posers suck the coffers dry while people with legitimate needs are denied access to the alleged safety-net we're forced to generously pay into. The "lucky" ones sell their assets and survive with the help of family. The rest waste away or commit suicide. Time and time again, sick Swedes say the authorities remind them of eastern-European bureaucrats, devoid of democracy.
09:48 March 15, 2012 by bourgeoisieboheme
Oh man I love Socialism! Glad my tax money goes to make sure lazy people are comfortable, I would hate to spoil their trips to Germany and holidays in Greece!
09:58 March 15, 2012 by RobinHood
But listen to the sandal wearers squeal when the goverment tries to introduce better medical evaluations of the sick and disabled. They go nuts at the very suggestion that some claimants might not be as sick as they say they are.
10:09 March 15, 2012 by kinan
#3 & #5 : I could not agree with you more . this is what happened to me

My spine was injured once -pretty pretty badly - and I got a shitty treatment from those bureaucrats!!! ( the hospital and Försäkringskassan )

I gave up on this broken system after almost half a year and i flew out of Sweden while being on a wheelchair and in massive pain just

to be operated abroad !! with

out the financial help of my father who paid for everything

probably i would still be on a wheelchair till now and still

suffering from the hypocrisy and bureaucracy

of which this system has to offer !

and here we have some people ^^claiming^^ to be ill and getting paid from our taxes but still they are healthy enough to go and buy alcohol from Germany .

really really a broken system !!!
10:52 March 15, 2012 by libertarianism
Kinan, I wish you peace, love, and continued healing.
11:21 March 15, 2012 by skogsbo
I find it shocking that a parent goes away, fancy being allowed to do what you like during parental leave, appalling. I think they should be tagged and forced to stay within 25m of the family home and a night time curfew. ;)
11:37 March 15, 2012 by Decedo
So this government pays for these lazy people to sit at home and make periodic beer runs to Germany, yet it can't properly man the '112' emergency line with qualified 'medical' staff, or send ambulances to heart attack victims?

Give me capitalism anyday!!
11:52 March 15, 2012 by zooeden
#3 You should be the president!!!
12:58 March 15, 2012 by spo10
"Among the other thirty or so ferry passengers, the inspectors found a woman who was unable to work as she claimed she couldn't leave her apartment due to psychological problems, several on sickness benefits..."

Försäkringskassan believed this nonsense and let her be on benefits?
13:24 March 15, 2012 by adshasta
So at any given time we have some ???.., tens of thousands people out of nearly ten million that are on the govt. sick leave program. Now, when a relatively small group of swindlers manage to cheat the system you all sound like "give us some American style GOP govt.., "You should be careful what you ask for you might just get it" Result is the top 1% take full advantage of the 99%. I think that these people that are found to be cheating should pay in some kind of punishment but I am against throwing out the system because of the few bad apples. Originally from Texas I am also very aware of the opposite extreme .., death penalty for stealing a horse.
13:28 March 15, 2012 by johan rebel
Alhtough Swedish media do their damndest to conceal the truth, with their sob stories about half-dead cancer patients deprived of their benefits, the fact is that the overwhelming majority of those on disability pensions suffer from vague back complaintgs, or equally vague mental problems. Allt för många tomtar på loftet, in other words. Swedish taxpayers should stop financing all these imaginary gnomes and trolls.
13:30 March 15, 2012 by kinan
@ Libertarianism : Really really thanks Alot i highly appreciate it , I am almost as good as new now :) best wishes to you .
14:46 March 15, 2012 by born2die
why don't govenment cut off benefit for those have been running illegal alchohol ring, Swedish govenment paying high benefit for those lazy people, and those people are manipulating the benefit system.
14:55 March 15, 2012 by Svensksmith
I just wanna know what they did with the beer they unloaded. Is is still by the sid of the road?
16:31 March 15, 2012 by teknowaffle
I find it interesting that Försäkringskassan can go to do spot checks at a customs point.
21:54 March 15, 2012 by johan rebel
And now they caught a guy who received over 6m kronor in benefits because he suffering from dementia and was unable to even dress or feed himself. He was discovered happily driving a car.

Makes you wonder how much he paid the doctors who provided the necessary documents certifying his illness.
08:28 March 16, 2012 by strixy
Long live socialism! :P
19:36 March 16, 2012 by tadchem
Any program which provides money to certain groups of people who are somehow 'entitled' to it will be vulnerable to those who are not so entitled and who also want money.

Fact of life.
11:51 March 17, 2012 by cogito
"...some on parental leave benefits, but without the other parent or the child with them..."

Give the poor parental leave slackers a break. Why should dad spend time with his offspring just because he's taking gov't handouts to spend time with them?

Oh, wait. Perhaps he is merely equipping his offspring for life in Sweden: booze first, family last.
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