I thank the Chairman and members of the joint committee for the opportunity to discuss the issues that I regard as the current priorities for the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The reality is that everything to do with this Department has become a major priority over the past year and this will continue for the next year given the range and numbers of people accessing support from this Department. Notwithstanding that, I will set out the key priorities for the Department first and then address each one separately.
The current economic climate is placing ever-growing demands on the services of the Department. Our objective is to ensure that we have the staff, systems and resources in place to meet these demands and our priorities are framed to meet this objective. Delivering services to customers, in particular payment of entitlements, in a timely and accurate manner is the principal priority this year. Allied to this, we will have appropriate controls in place to ensure that payments are made only to those who are entitled to them. We will continue to develop our activation programmes, in conjunction with other departments and agencies, to deliver supports to people of working age to help them re-enter the labour market. Policy development will continue during the year, particularly on pensions and lone parents. The changes in schemes as announced in budget 2009 and in the supplementary budget will be implemented.
The committee members will be aware the budget for social welfare is €21.3 billion in the current year. The live register currently stands at more than 385,000 and the projected average live register figure for 2009 has been raised to 440,000. Despite the pressures on the public purse, Government expenditure has sought to protect investment in social welfare to protect the vulnerable and help those who rely on the State for income support. In this context we are conscious of our obligation to safeguard this money and ensure it is administered in the most effective and efficient way.
The Department has a reputation for delivering a quality service to customers and despite the pressures in the current year we aim to retain that reputation. Each year we process almost 2.5 million claims, and issue more than 1.2 million payments per week and 500,000 million on a monthly basis to customers. The recent, and ongoing, growth in the live register and other schemes is placing pressure on our ability to deliver on our service targets. However, the Department has taken action to address these issues through the recruitment and training of staff, implementing process enhancements and through restructuring the back office supports for local offices.
The live register grew from some 175,000 in January 2008 to 384,500 at the end of April 2009, an increase of more than 125%. Despite this substantial increase we have been able to maintain services at a reasonable level. Some 10,000 jobseekers claims are decided in a given week and processing times currently stand at an average of 3.32 weeks for jobseekers benefit and seven weeks for jobseekers allowance.
During 2008 we commenced a review of the processes and procedures surrounding claim acceptance and decisions and have introduced a number of process improvements to help deal with the rising claim load. For example, we established four central decisions offices to process claims to relieve pressure on the local offices. Further offices will be set up during this year. We are continuing to keep the claim processes and procedures under review, with a view providing additional enhancements during 2009.
The Department has an obligation to ensure that payments are made to the right people, for the right amount, at the right time. Control of fraud and abuse of social welfare payments is an integral part of that process. A variety of control processes are applied across the Department's schemes. These processes are based on the outcome of fraud and error surveys which identify the levels and types of fraud and abuse being perpetrated against schemes.
Almost €476 million in social welfare payments was saved through fraud control measures in 2008, an increase of €29 million on the previous year. We are stepping up fraud control across all of our schemes to ensure the right payments are going to the right people for the duration for which they have entitlement. This year we plan to make further control savings in excess of €500 million. A four-pronged control strategy has been adopted by the Department, namely, prevention of fraud and error at the initial claim stage, early detection through effective review of claims in payment, measures to deter fraud and the pursuit and recovery of overpayments.
In 2009 new measures include stricter identity checks in post offices for people collecting social welfare payments. Members will have noted reference in the media to the Department's participation in multi-agency vehicle checks in recent months. In Border regions there is an increased emphasis on jobseeker claims from applicants with a previous address in Northern Ireland.
The frequency of issue of certification to validate continued entitlement to child benefit is at three-monthly intervals for EU workers and, since April 2009, is also three-monthly for resident foreign national customers. A major increase in reports of suspect activity is evident from the significant increase in anonymous reports made to the control division in Carrick-on-Shannon. At the end of April 2009, 1,735 reports were received, compared to the end of April 2008 when 232 reports were received, which is a 750% increase. That figure does not include reports which were made to other areas or offices around the country.
Criminal prosecutions were taken against persons who defraud the social welfare payments system and employers who fail to carry out their statutory obligations. In 2008, 309 criminal cases involving social welfare recipients were finalised in court, an increase of 82 on the previous year. A total of 354 criminal cases were referred to the Office of the Chief State Solicitor for the initiation of prosecution proceedings.
I and the other members of Government are strongly committed to getting people off the live register and back into employment or training as quickly as possible. In this context, as outlined in the recent supplementary budget, the Department works closely with the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Education and Science, as well as FÁS and other bodies to deliver a range of additional measures aimed at maintaining people in employment, re-skilling and facilitating better access to allowances, while avoiding undue negative impacts on vulnerable individuals. Particular focus will be given to providing support to 18 year old and 19 year old jobseekers to enable them to avail of education and training opportunities with a view to preventing them from becoming welfare dependent from a young age.
A package of measures relating to the back to work enterprise allowance and back to education allowance schemes was introduced in the recent budget to facilitate better access to supports. The range of measures reflects the fact that people at all skill levels are losing their jobs and the importance of providing a mix of responses in training and education best suited to the diverse needs of the newly unemployed.
Under the employment action plan, 64,500 people were referred to FÁS in the period from January 2008 to January 2009, an increase of 8,500 over the corresponding period from January 2007 to January 2008. By the end of February 2009, 58% of those referred had left the live register, including 4,000 who were placed in jobs by FÁS and 4,800 who were placed in programmes, training or education. FÁS, in co-operation with my Department, is extending the job-search national employment action plan, of which capacity will nearly double for 2009 from 6,500 cases per month to 12,250. This is an unprecedented increase in capacity for this programme.
In addition, the Government is providing, through FÁS, a total of 128,000 training and activation places for the unemployed this year. This is a substantial increase on the figure of approximately 66,000 places taken up last year. Furthermore, 147,000 places are available in further education programmes in 2009. These developments demonstrate the scale of activity being supported by this Government to ensure people are best positioned to get back into employment.
Policy development will continue during the year, in particular on pensions and lone parents. The Government has been working since the publication of the pensions Green Paper in 2007 to bring forward proposals to help the pensions industry. Our initiatives started last December with the announcement of a number of short-term measures aimed at reducing the pressure on under-funded defined benefit schemes by allowing greater flexibility and time to recover funding positions.
Recently, I amended the Pensions Act to change the order in which liabilities are calculated on the wind-up of a defined benefit pension scheme. The purpose of the change is to allow greater flexibility for schemes to restructure benefits in the event of under-funding and strengthen the role of the Pensions Board in its pursuit of employers who fail to remit pension contributions they have deducted from the wages and salaries of employees.
Furthermore, I announced the introduction of the pensions insolvency payments scheme, under which if a defined benefit scheme is in deficit and the sponsoring employer becomes insolvent, the trustees of the scheme may apply to the Minister for Finance to purchase pension payments for the scheme's retired members at a lower cost than is available on the open market.
The Government is developing a national pensions framework which I expect to publish shortly. The framework, which will shape the direction of pension policy in Ireland for years to come, will address the many and varied issues that were raised in the Green Paper consultation process and cut across all areas of our pension system, namely, the social welfare pension, occupational and personal pensions, public sector pensions and retirement age.
People need to be confident and secure about their retirement expectations and should not arrive at pension age to find their incomes are well below the levels which were promised. Our system must provide assurance so that all of us can look forward to retirement, confident that our pensions are safe. This should begin with the very basis of our system, namely, the social welfare pension. That is the ground on which everything else lies and the Government will ensure this remains the case.
The current one family payment provides long-term income support to those parenting alone until children are aged 18 years or 22 years if in full-time education. The current duration of the payment is not in the best interests of the recipient, his or her children or society. Social welfare supports for lone parents should be designed to prevent long-term dependence on social welfare income support and facilitate financial independence; recognise parental choice with regard to care of young children but with the expectation that parents will not remain outside of the labour force indefinitely; and change the expectations surrounding receipt of the one family payment, introducing an expectation of participation in education, training and employment, with supports provided in this regard. Income supports are not sufficient in themselves to address issues of parenting alone. Issues including access to child care support, education, training, and activation measures must also be addressed by the relevant Departments and agencies if lone parents are to be enabled to access employment.
Good progress has been made in the provision of child care. Government invested some €1 billion over the past decade in developing a child care infrastructure, under both the national child care investment programme 2006-10 and, prior to that, the EU co-funded Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-06. As a result of this programme, some 70,000 child care places will be in place by 2010. This investment has made it possible to introduce the recently announced free early childhood care and education, ECCE, year for pre-school children, which will be particularly helpful to those parenting alone. We are continuing to keep policies relating to lone parents under consideration. However, the extent and speed at which these can progress will be impacted by the current economic climate.
Changes in social welfare schemes were announced in budget 2009 and the supplementary budget which impacted on rates of payments, conditionality and entitlement to payments and supports to access employment and training. These changes have been and will continue to be implemented in a timely fashion to meet the policies as outlined. The major legislation requirements have been implemented and guidelines, staff instructions and training are being provided to staff and managers as required.
The Department has an ongoing programme of staff training, recruitment and development to meet the general needs of our business. Allied to this is an accommodation programme and an IT programme. Our staff recruitment processes have been stepped up considerably in the past 12 months to address the pressures of the growth in claims on offices. More than 240 additional staff have been recruited in that period and it is anticipated that a further 300 will be required to meet our needs in the coming year.
We have an ongoing programme of process improvement, including the setting up of central decisions offices, to alleviate pressures on front line staff. We are engaging with the OPW on a programme to acquire additional accommodation and to upgrade other offices. Our ambitious IT development programme is being designed to automate routine processes and thus release our staff for greater engagement with the customers.
There is a wide array of other work, including restructuring of the Department and agencies, social inclusion activities and so on, which will also absorb much of our time and resources. What I have outlined here are the key priorities of the Department for 2009.
