Departmental Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 May 2017

Tuesday, 23 May 2017

Questions (354)

Sean Fleming

Question:

354. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 140 of 11 May 2017, the number of persons who owe his Department less than €1,000, between €1,000 and €2,000, between €2,000 and €5,000, between €5,000 and €10,000, between €10,000 and €15,000, between €15,000 and €20,000, and in excess of €20,000 respectively, in tabular form; the total value of debt in each of the categories; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24590/17]

Written answers

Minister for Social Protection

Overpayments of benefit or assistance arise where a person is paid in excess of their entitlement or paid where no entitlement exists. At the end of 2016, the outstanding value of these overpayments was €482.4m in respect of 174,440 persons involving 191,600 individual overpayments. The breakdown sought by the Deputy is provided in the following table.

TABLE: Overpayment outstanding at end 2016 broken down by value and number of persons

Value Bands	Number of Persons	Outstanding value at end of 2016
Less than €1,000	114,959	€34.4m
€1,000 - €1,999.99	20,692	€29.3m
€2,000 - €4,999.99	18,443	€58.5m
€5,000 - €9,999.99	9,398	€66.0m
€10,000 - €14,999.99	3,964	€48.4m
€15,000 - €19,999.99	2,143	€37.1m
€20,000 or more	4,841	€208.7m
Total	174,440	€482.4m

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.