- The Basque Government has once again launched a mailbox for citizens to communicate anonymously “any suspicion of irregular actions” and has strengthened the Lanbide Control Unit, even though no fraud is committed around Income Guarantee.
Lanbide has started the campaign “Compliance is your guarantee” and the message is clear: they call on citizens to comply with the rules to access the benefit. Thus, it seems that many do not comply with the rules, but that is not a reality, and the data recently provided by the Basque Government itself indicate that among the citizens who misperceive the Income Guarantee Income (IGR) there is hardly any fraud, in most cases it is due to delays in administrative processing, that is, to errors in the Lanbide formalities.
And yet it has launched the Anti-Fraud Communications Mailbox, so that citizens can “anonymously and confidentially” denounce the irregular actions suspected in the IGR and the Minimum Vital Income (IMI), “such as the initiative to detect fraudulent situations launched in other countries or in other departments of the Basque Government”.
"The message that is socialized is that ‘if you do controls it will be for something’. Tax fraud is 20% and tax inspection is much less."
Criminalisation of poverty
In the presentation of the campaign, they also stressed that the Lanbide Control Unit launched last December has increasingly specialized instruments. This measure was also born with the aim of “ensuring compliance with obligations” and detecting fraud, among other things. It consists of 19 members and maintains a "permanent" relationship with the Police, the Labor Inspectorate and the Public Prosecutor's Office, among others. “Cross data from all dossiers to learn about the working life or contribution bases of the beneficiaries.”
Precisely, this increase in control and the criminalisation of poverty have been some of the factors that have criticised the new IGR law adopted in March last year. Iñaki Uribarri, a member of Argilan-ESK, spoke harshly in ARGIA: "The people who receive the IGR, despite having their right, are treated perversely, and although the fraud among the recipients of that economic benefit is only 0.7%, the message that is socialized is that ‘if they do controls it will be for something’. Tax fraud is 20% and tax inspection is much lower, and every inspection case is well justified. It seems like an impoverished crime.
In Uribarri's opinion, "greater control is the way in which the PNV responds to right-wing messages like 'You pay money to migrants', but ultimately it is a submission to the right to the detriment of rights and social justice. Poor people don't vote and they're an easy destination."