asked the Minister for Social Welfare if, following the findings of Craig Gardner, Management Consultants into the payment system in operation in his Department, he has developed statistical sampling methods for estimating levels of abuse.
Written Answers. - Review of Social Welfare Payments.
28.
The consultants assisted the Department in developing statistical sampling methods to estimate the level of social welfare abuse. A methodology was established and was used by my Department to carry out a review of a sample of disability benefit and unemployment payments in the Dublin area.
The application of these techniques is still at a relatively early stage. Considerable work still needs to be done, procedures need to be further refined and sampling extended outside the Dublin area. International experience has shown that these techniques need to be progressively refined over a lengthy period of time before a fully reliable method is achieved. My Department are continuing with this process.