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Elderly Italian on benefits stashed €1m in Swiss bank

The Local
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Elderly Italian on benefits stashed €1m in Swiss bank
File photo: Peter Linke

An 80-year-old woman who has claimed welfare benefits in Italy for the past 12 years is being investigated after the authorities found she had a Swiss bank account containing one million euros, according to reports.

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The octogenarian started claiming welfare in Italy in 2004 and is thought to have received nearly 90,000 euros in benefits over the years, said news agencies on Thursday.

According to Milan’s Corriere della Sera the particular social assistance she claimed was intended to help over-65s living in poverty.

The supposedly destitute woman had also recently put in a claim to the authorities of the Gallarate commune in Italy for housing benefit to help pay her rent.

But she is now being investigated after finance authorities in Varese, northern Italy, discovered the woman had a bank account in Switzerland containing around one million euros.

She had also recently initiated proceedings to bring the funds back to Italy, said the media.

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