The number of reports regarding fraud at car washes, welfare at work and cross-border fraud has also increased sharply. — © Shutterstock
The Reporting Center for Fair Competition (MEC), where anyone can report suspicions of social fraud, received 7,841 reports last year. That’s what De Zondag writes. Last year the platform processed 7,202 reports.
Although citizens and companies in our country did not submit a record number of reports to the MEC in the past year, the number of reports appears to be increasing again. 2020 was an absolute record year, largely due to the high number of Covid reports. This allowed people to report abuse in case of temporary unemployment and monitor compliance with Covid prevention measures.
The number of reports of this fell spectacularly in 2023, meaning that the form will be discontinued from 2024. In addition, there has been a sharp decline this year in the number of reports of discrimination (40 percent).
The hotline did receive exponentially more reports in the field of social dumping (+68.4 percent), economic exploitation or human trafficking (+69.2 percent), tax undeclared work (+48.9 percent) and reports of violations relating to wages and labor (+32.4 percent). The number of reports regarding fraud at car washes, welfare at work and cross-border fraud has also increased sharply.