State's €519m fraud savings in 2016
Anti-fraud measures saved the State €510m last year, with the Department of Social Protection estimating as much as €110m was overpaid, of which €85m was recovered,
The department also said it considered nearly 300 cases for prosecution and by the end of last December had referred 194 cases to the Chief State Solicitors’ Office so as to issue proceedings.
Another 160 cases were referred to the Director of Public Prosecution for consideration during the year by the department’s Special Investigations Unit.
Based on end-November 2016 returns, the department said annual control savings for last year are estimated to be of the order of €498m, or 98% of the full year target of €510m.
The final outturn for the year will be available at a later date.
According to a department spokesperson: “Early estimates indicate that for 2016 as a whole, some €110m in overpayments were recorded, compared to some €115m in 2015.
"Of this, some €41m were considered to be overpayments raised where the customer failed to inform the department of relevant information or where fraud was suspected.”
Of that €41m, approximately €24m of overpayments were in respect of 13,000 jobseekers benefit and assistance claims.
While the final figure will be made available at a later date, the spokesperson said that total overpayments recovered during 2016 are estimated at approximately €85m.
According to the department spokesperson: “In the absence of engagement by the person concerned, the department can recover up to 15% of the personal rate from an ongoing social welfare payment.
“The department also has powers to recover funds held in bank accounts or seek to assess the earnings of a person where they refuse to engage with the department to recover sums overpaid.”
The department also said that nearly 19,000 individual reports of suspected fraud or wrong-doing were received from members of the public in 2016 to its tip-off line.
It is estimated that approximately two-thirds of those contacts contained sufficient information to allow a referral for review or investigation, but no figure was available as to the actual number of cases in which fraud was proven as a result.
Yesterday Independent TD Mattie McGrath referred to “staggering figures” provided to him by the Department which showed that from 2011 to 2016 more than €420m was recovered by the department due to over-payments.
Mr McGrath received the information in response to a parliamentary question.
