AAP FactCheck – A false claim that Muslims are the only Australians who can claim welfare benefits from multiple relationships is being shared on social media.
The Department of Social Services does not recognise multiple relationships, and government policy does not allow individuals to claim welfare benefits from more than one relationship.
The claim is in a Facebook post featuring a green graphic that includes a photo of a Muslim man and four women holding hands with the title “WAKE UP AUSTRALIA”, which invokes One Nation senator Pauline Hanson’s “CRACKDOWN ON MULTIPLE WIVES WELFARE RORT”.
“We can’t do it so why should they. This is ripping off our welfare benefits where they get benefits for all their wives and children. It must be made policy that they, like us, can only have one partner and not a whole tribe,” the caption reads.
A bright green graphic repeats the same claim, continuing: “This country’s laws are for two people to be married to each other, not multiple wives collecting benefits from our social security system. THIS IS ILLEGAL.”
The Associated Press photo in the post’s graphic shows outspoken Malaysian polygamist Mohamamd Inaamulillah Bin Ashaari and his four wives in Kuala Lumpur in 2009.
The post references Senator Hanson’s claim that “polygamist Muslims” were rorting the welfare system during a Sky News debate in August 2016.
At the time, the Department of Social Services policy said each member of a multiple relationship was treated as being partnered, with each individual’s income and assets tested against their partners’ for welfare and tax purposes.
However, the department’s policy was updated in 2018 to clarify that a welfare recipient would only be considered partnered with an individual who was not in an existing relationship.
“The Australian social security system does NOT recognise the existence of multiple relationships, regardless of whether they were formed within Australia or overseas,” the guide says.
“Where a person declares they are part of a multiple relationship their circumstances should be considered under section 24 of the SSAct.
“Where a recipient has more than one partner, the recipient will be considered to be in a relationship with the person they are either legally married to, or in a registered relationship with. Where the recipient is not married or in a registered relationship, the relationship that commenced earliest will be recognised for social security purposes.”
Elise Fordham, a lawyer with expertise in de facto and multiple relationships, said individuals in multiple relationships cannot claim social security benefits from each relationship.
She said the rules regarding payments for people in such relationships were covered in Section 24(1) of the Social Security Act 1991.
Ms Fordham said in a hypothetical scenario, a man with multiple partners could only claim tax and welfare benefits as a member of one couple but could not claim in relation to any of his additional partners.
Meanwhile, she said, only one of that man’s partners could claim welfare and tax benefits from being his partner, while his other partners would be treated as single people.
“If someone is currently claiming multiple benefits for multiple relationships, it would be fraud,” Ms Fordham told AAP FactCheck.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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