Finance ministry investigators have launched a criminal probe into possibly fraudulent social security benefit claims from Bulgaria, the NRC said on Wednesday.

The investigation follows a string of reports from various government bodies about claims from abroad, specifically Bulgaria, junior minister Aukje de Vries has said in a briefing to parliament.

The report suggests that falsified entries in the standard population register may have allowed people to claim benefits, coupled with identity fraud and the misuse of the Digid identification system. 

One of the government agencies reporting issues is Logius, which manages government digital services and reported almost 2000 BSN numbers trading back to a handful of IP addresses. Payments from the suspect addresses have now been stopped. 

Some of those files have now been transferred to investigators for further research. Two local authorities have also recently reported concerns about wrongful registrations and possible false rental agreements, the minister said.

In 2013, reports of a major benefits fraud involving a Bulgarian gang led to a tough new approach from the tax office which in turn created the childcare benefit scandal. Tens of thousands of people were wrongly accused of fraud and forced to pay back thousands of euros and the aftermath has not yet been properly dealt with. 

The fraud in 2013 cost the Dutch state €5.6 million and resulted in six people being jailed.