4,500 Names or 4,500 Claims: Methodology Before the Number in the Welfare Case
Prime Minister Mickoski announced over 4,500 false, deceased or emigrated welfare recipients, at an annual cost of roughly €25 million — but before it becomes a final figure, it's key to know what kind of check stood behind it.
Prime Minister Christijan Mickoski announced that the welfare system identified over 4,500 cases of false, deceased, emigrated or fictitious recipients, with an estimated annual cost to the budget of roughly €25 million. The figure, if confirmed, represents a significant amount of unnecessarily spent public money every year.
The key question, however, isn't the figure itself, but the methodology behind it — whether 4,500 cases are the result of a systematic administrative check (cross-referencing death registries, border control for emigration, etc.), or a preliminary estimate that still needs to be confirmed case by case. The difference between "4,500 confirmed cases" and "4,500 presumed abuses" matters for the credibility of the entire initiative.
For citizens, the question is practical: is this news of a successful system reform that saves budget money, or a political figure released without full transparency about exactly how it was obtained. Until a complete verification methodology is published, 4,500 remains a claim awaiting confirmation, not a settled fact.
MKNews Hub · Macedonia · October 7, 2026
