Tougher checks on welfare benefits have allowed officials to identify 25% more fraudulent claims, the Volkskrant reports on Monday.

In particular more people are using hotlines to tip off officials about fraud, and people are giving themselves away on social media sites like Facebook, the Volkskrant says.

For example, in 2010, Amsterdam started 367 criminal investigations into welfare fraud and clawed back €3.36m in wrongly paid out benefits. Last year the city launched 560 investigations and recovered €6.26m.

The city’s fraud hotline received 750 reports which officials deemed worthy of further investigation. In the first seven months of this year, the hotline has had 390 worthwhile reports.