The welfare system is a very important part of the Swedish society. It is meant to be a form of a social safety net, to make sure that every citizen has a life with a certain standard of social security. This is financed with the help of taxes paid by the taxpayers. In order to maintain credibility for the welfare system, it is of the utmost importance that the tax funds are used effectively and that social benefits are distributed correctly. Incorrect payments of tax funds and crime within the welfare system pose a major threat to the legitimacy of the welfare state.Therefore our aim with this essay is to describe and discuss the proposal of an administrative penalty fee system in the field of welfare systems. In the conclusion of the essay we address the fact that the current regelation is not sufficient enough to deal with the amount of crimes committed against the Swedish welfare. Hence the introduction of a system of penalty fees would be preferable in our opinion. It would result in a faster reaction from the society and prevent incorrect payments from authorities. However, there are a number of consequences that could occur with such a system. One aspect we discuss is that the system may affect the people who are trying to do the right thing for themselves and that in itself could possibly lead to people choosing not to apply for social benefits and support.

The study has generated an overview of how Swedish Police work with welfare crime and in particular those relating to the benefit system. An inductive approach has been applied and the findings have been discussed and analysed using the rational choice theory and Kahl´s hypothesis. Literature have been reviewed and through a snowball method interviews have been conducted with members of the police force as well as civil servants from relevant authorities. The interviews have been conducted in different parts of the country. The police strategy, working methods and tools are discussed as so far, they have been possible to identify. The conclusion is that there is a need to look at welfare crime from the perspective of groupness to avoid state exploitation. This would mean a change from the current strategy aimed at the setting of a crime originate in the crime analysis triangle concept to a social perspective. A secondary consequence would be that the strategy of united action between authorities and police which is already in place needs to further development and include a wider range of stakeholders to ensure effective crime prevention.