asked the Minister for Social Welfare if she will give details of the anti-fraud measures which her Department are now taking, including the cost of these measures and the terms of reference given to Craig Gardner and Company in relation to their investigations.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Anti-Fraud Measures.
26.
The Department have recently undertaken a number of anti-fraud measures. On the disability benefit side a series of measures designed to improve control of abuse and fraudulent claiming have been introduced. These include the recruitment of additional control staff including extra medical referees. Improved computer facilities to assist with speedy identification and retrieval of irregularly cashed cheques and streamlining the referral of claimants to the Department's medical referees are also in place.
In relation to unemployment payments, new procedures have been introduced in the Department's local offices which require clients as a matter of course to produce enhanced authoritative evidence of identity before claims are put into payment. In addition, a designated officer has been appointed at each employment exchange to co-ordinate action on suspected cases of personation or multiple signing and to ensure that the follow-up action is both speedy and complete.
Special interviewing sessions by members of the special investigation unit have been undertaken on an experimental basis. Some 6,000 persons on the live register have been interviewed. A review of this operation is at present under way.
The problem of personation and multiple claiming is also being tackled by having more secure signing cards issued to unemployment claimants. It is planned that these cards will be introduced in the near future at a Dublin exchange on a pilot basis in the first instance. The experiment can be evaluated in the light of experience before any decision is made about proceeding further.
The special investigation unit, which carries out investigations into cases of suspected fraudulent claiming of unemployment benefit and assistance has been strengthened by the provision of six additional posts. As a result the level of investigation will be stepped up considerably. In all some 100 additional staff have been assigned for control purposes at a cost of £900,000 per annum.
The consultancy firm of Craig Gardner and Company have been appointed to examine the problem of social welfare fraud. The terms of reference are: to carry out an assessment of the public perception of fraud and of the actual level of fraud, to review the controls and systems used to qualify and pay claimants, and to make recommendations for cost-effective improvements in controls and systems. The first phase of the review, the assessment of the public perception of fraud and the actual level of fraud has been completed and I expect to have a report of the findings shortly.
Can I ask the Minister——
It is now 3.45 p.m.
Can I ask the Minister if the report by Craig Gardner and Company will be published?
I will be considering that question when I see the report which I expect to see very shortly.