Throw away for obvious reasons.
The increasingly high cost of living in my city, paired with income disparity and lack of wage increases, made me so desperate that I resorted to benefit fraud through my employers health insurance policy. I falsified invoices for services that I did not receive to get instant cash to help me and my family get by for day to day living expenses.
So yes, I risked my entire job (which I have a post secondary education for, by the way) for a fraudulent scheme that helped me pay gas, food and keep a roof over my head, because even with an education, job's here don't pay the bills and/or help you save for the future.
Now my only options are: owning up to what I did with a lawyer in tow, pay lawyer fees and restitution, take some sort of health related leave of absence to prolong being fired while I look for another job?
Either way I'm getting fired because of a system designed to fail educated and working class people like me, where being tempted into fraud feels like the most feasible solution to financial instability.
Obviously I would never do it again and would advise all of you here not to do it, but it helps knowing I wasn't the only one tempted to during hard times.
See news report of a highly prestigious York University Professor in Ontario, Canada – who was making six figures at the time she committed insurance fraud out of desperation (her husband was diagnosed with cancer – and NO living in Canada with “free” healthcare does not absolve you of financial burden, the disability payments made to those with illness are abhorrent and still leave people destitute) Link
Thanks for reading. If you have any words of wisdom or encouragement for my impending downfall or words please let me know! I'm not asking anyone here to condone a crime, yes I know it's wrong and I was desperate (steal from the rich to feed the poor comes to mind). Yes – I have sought legal advise and their advice is “pay the insurance companies back and hope they don't press charges.”