Soft on fraud

Stuff reports:

First year free study may be a popular policy, but hundreds of students made false declarations to get their university fees covered in the 2018 and 2019 academic years – and some haven’t paid the money back.

In response to written parliamentary questions obtained by Stuff, Education Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed that at least 473 applicants for Fees Free made false declarations in order to receive get the grant in the first two years of the government’s Fees Free programme.

Hipkins said he was advised by the Tertiary Education Commission of the 342 false declarations in 2018 and 131 in 2019.

Yet charges have only been laid against three individuals for the 2019 year.

Why isn’t everyone who makes a false declaration charged?