Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 16 Oct 1996

Vol. 470 No. 2

Written Answers. - Responsibility for Overpayments.

David Andrews

Ceist:

83 Mr. Andrews asked the Minister for Social Welfare his views on revelations in the recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General that he was responsible for overpayments of almost £500,000 in relation to arrears of equal treatment payments and that he was responsible for further overpayments to Telecom Éireann, the ESB and An Post in relation to services provided to his Department. [18551/96]

Minister for Social Welfare (Proinsias De Rossa)

Equal treatment arrears are payable to married women in a number of instalments. Payments on account were made to all claimants in July/August 1995. These were calculated by reference to data held on computer file in relation to payments made in 1992/93 under the restricted equal treatment provisions introduced in June 1992. Subsequent payments were made following detailed review of individual claims. The overpayments came to light during the course of this review.

The overpayments arose as a result of departmental errors and were not as a result of any fraud on the part of the claimants. While every effort was made to avoid overpayments nonetheless they must be seen in the context of the huge task of paying arrears to 70,000 married women on claims made as far back as 1984. At that time schemes administered by the Department were not computerised to the extent they now are with the result that comprehensive details of claims were not available in all cases. In the context of overall expenditure on equal treatment arrears — currently £244.6 million — the amount overpaid could not be considered as significant.

As regards the recovery of equal treatment overpayments the position is that a number of legal issues were considered with the Attorney General's office. The recovery of the overpayments is currently being reviewed by my Department on the basis of the advice recently obtained from that office. Any further action will depend on the outcome of that review.

In his annual report for 1995, the Comptroller and Auditor General also referred to overcharges to the Department of £43,850 by Telecom Éireann, £21,168 by An Post and a possible overcharge of £13,600 per two-month billing period by the ESB. These overpayments arose on the free telephone rental allowance, free TV licence and free electricity allowance schemes which apply to elderly and incapacitated pensioners. The overpayments came to light as a result of control procedures operated in my Department and in An Post.

In the case of Telecom Éireann, pensioners were receiving credit on their telephone accounts in respect of the rental charges for additional telephone equipment not covered under the free telephone rental allowance scheme and the cost was charged to my Department. Overpayment of some £53,000 from January 1994 has been identified to date and recovered in full. Further control procedures have been put in place in my Department to ensure early detection and recovery of any further overpayments.

In the case of An Post, part of the overpayment was identified and subsequently recovered by my Department as far back as July 1993. The remainder of this aggregate overpayment, which related to free television licences which were issued in error to non-qualified customers, was identified by An Post's own internal audit procedures. The full amount has been recovered from An Post. The issue of free television licences to qualified pensioners is being automated. This will result in advance verification of entitlement before licences issue. Overpayments such as these will be eliminated in the process. It is planned to have this in operation by the end of the year.

In the case of the ESB, checks by my Department identified possible categories of overpayment. Criteria were drawn up and the ESB supplied lists of cases which met the criteria. A total of 1,213 cases were identified in this process of which 567 had their allowances terminated. Procedures have been put in place to prevent the overpayments recurring. The scope for recovery is currently under investigation with the ESB.

The aggregate overpayments in respect of the free schemes concerned are comparatively small in the context of annual expenditure of over £66 million in 1996 terms on the relevant schemes. They were identified through existing control procedures and these are being improved on a cost-effective basis. I am satisfied that all reasonable steps are and have been taken to avoid overpayments and, where these arise, to detect and effect recovery.