Legal protection in social benefit fraud cases When the obligation to provide information ceases When a local authority investigates whether a citizen is still entitled to social benefits, there are two perspectives on the case: looking forward, whether benefits are still to be paid, and looking back, whether benefits already received must be repaid. Different questions need to be answered and thus investigated depending on whether the local authority wants to discontinue payment of benefits or to demand repayment. If the citizen has acted in bad faith, a third issue may be added: whether there is a basis for initiating a criminal case, i.e. having the police and the Prosecution Service assess whether there are grounds for trying to have the citizen sentenced for social benefit fraud in court. Using cases concerning whether a person is still entitled to a social benefit as a starting point, the questions can be presented schematically as follows: Is there a basis for demanding repayment? Criterion: received ‘in bad faith’ Effect: retrospective Is the recipient not entitled to the benefit? Criterion: lives in a ‘marriage-like Can the recipient be punished? relationship’, is not ill, etc. Criterion: criminal offence Effect: future Effect: sentence Before considering when a citizen is living in a ‘marriage-like relationship’ and when a citizen can be said to have received benefits ‘in bad faith’, we shall touch on the possibility that a case concerning entitlement to social benefits may develop into a criminal case – as this can have a significant influence on the way in which it must be processed. In social matters, citizens are obliged to provide information to the authorities. However, pursuant to section 10 of the Act on Legal Protection in Connection with the Administration’s Use of Compulsory Intervention and Duties of Disclosure, this obligation does not apply if an authority has an actual suspicion that a person has committed a punishable offence. In other words, the citizen’s obligation to provide information no longer applies if during a case the local 43