Ms Leach said fraud convictions were not high compared with the number of people receiving the benefit.
"For my experience I don't believe that benefit fraud is a big problem in New Zealand.
"I know it takes a lot to get a conviction, but if there are only 28 convictions in Hastings and there are about 13,500 people on the benefit in Hawke's Bay, it is not many people committing benefit fraud."
Ms Leach said the benefit did not provide enough for a comfortable life, but beneficiaries were not more inclined to commit crime. "The benefit is there to provide assistance to people going through hardship - for example, if they have lost their job.
"It is certainly not a comfortable existence.
"People do live in difficult financial circumstances and they have a lot of debt and the benefit doesn't allow much for debt repayment.
"It only provides enough for rent, food and power but, in saying that, I don't believe people intentionally set out to defraud the social welfare system," she said.
In November last year, 55-year-old Napier woman Maureen Kempton pleaded guilty to stealing more than $300,000 through 31 counts of benefit fraud and one count of willfully omitting information.
Kempton was sentenced in Napier District Court to three years and two months in prison.
In 2013, another Hawke's Bay woman was overpaid $129,000 by Work and Income after she misinformed the department about her relationship status.
Associate Minister for Social Development Jo Goodhew said the ministry had stepped up efforts to reduce benefit fraud.
"Over the past two-and-a-half years around 9500 benefits have been cancelled after fraudulent and illegitimate payments were discovered. These changes hold people to account for their actions, and make it difficult to defraud the welfare system," she said.
A vast majority of the fraud has been identified through increased information sharing with Inland Revenue - making it easier for the Social Development Ministry to identify clients who under-declared their incomes, which would have affected benefit payments.
Another key initiative was stricter monitoring of clients who had previously committed fraud.
Mrs Goodhew said monitoring was a success and thousands were being monitored to ensure they were receiving the correct benefits.
"We've identified around 3000 clients that fall into this category - and it's fantastic to see that since low-trust case management was introduced in October 2013, as at 31 December 2014, none have re-offended."
NZME.
