An Auckland mother of six has been sentenced to home detention for claiming Working for Families Tax Credits (WFTC) she wasn’t entitled to.
Sasagi Rosalie Filoa plead guilty to a representative charge of tax fraud and appeared for sentence in the Manukau District Court on July 28, before Judge Radich.
WFTC are payments providing assistance for low-income families with dependent children aged under 18.
Filoa married in 2011 and has six children with her husband. During a phone call to Inland Revenue in 2015, Filoa said she was a single parent. She claimed and received full single parent WFTC payments for 7 years from 2018 until 2024.
However, she was living with her husband during that time and eligibility should have been assessed as for a married couple. That assessment, based on their combined income, would have disqualified them from eligibility for the WFTC.
Inland Revenue (IR) records show Filoa received and filled out a Notice of Entitlement (NOE) each year and entered nil amounts under partner income. She didn’t, at any time, try to update IR with the correct information.
During an interview, Filoa admitted she knew she shouldn’t have been receiving WFTC and said the money was used for daily living expenses and personal bills.
However, an Immigration Passenger Movement report showed she travelled overseas, often with her family, about 20 times from 2015 to 2024.
Filoa said she used money to support her family and meet cultural obligations, not luxury spending. But Judge Radich noted that 20 overseas trips by Filoa and her family over 8 years indicates a comfortable financial position, so it would appear the offending was “motivated by greed rather than necessity”.
Just under $190,000 was paid to Filoa, money she was not entitled to. She is currently repaying the amount at $300 per week.
The final sentence was 8 months home detention and a further 6 months post detention conditions.