Vol. 469 No. 6
178 Mr. J. Walsh asked the Minister for Social Welfare the number of personnel who work full-time in the special investigation units, checking for people who are working while claiming social welfare; and if he has satisfied himself that this number is adequate. [18110/96]
The detection of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day to day work of my Department. The work of all staff who are engaged in claim processing and maintenance is to some degree concerned with preventing and deterring fraud and abuse in the first instance and to deterring it where circumstances warrant.
In addition, there are at present some 570 staff whose work at local, regional and national level is either entirely or significantly related to the control of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system. An additional 57 staff are being assigned to this work.
These staff, inter alia, carry out inspections of employers in relation to their PRSI obligations, investigate cases of concurrent working and claiming of social welfare benefits, review customers' means for assistance payments and monitor their on-going entitlement to social welfare payments.
At present some 100 of these staff operate in specialist investigation units, some jointly with Revenue. The numbers involved are being increased to approximately 130.
Additional measures, including staff redeployment, will be taken to confront and reduce the incidence of fraud and abuse as and when necessary.
