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Social Welfare Fraud.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 October 2004

Wednesday, 6 October 2004

Ceisteanna (55)

Kathleen Lynch

Ceist:

158 Ms Lynch asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the provisions in place to prevent social welfare fraud; his views on the increased rate in the number of cases of social welfare fraud which resulted in prosecutions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23306/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day to day work of my Department. In this regard all staff engaged in claims processing are concerned with preventing and detecting fraud and abuse.

Over 600 staff at local, regional and national level are engaged on a full-time or part-time basis on work related to the control of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system.

A special investigation unit, comprising about 80 staff spread throughout the country, is involved in work which is specifically related to the investigation of employers and employees where fraud and abuse is suspected. These officers, some of whom work jointly with inspectors from the Revenue Commissioners, carry out inspections of employers in relation to their PRSI obligations as well as investigating cases where fraud or abuses of the schemes are suspected.

Controls are exercised at both the initial claim stage and at subsequent stages during the claim life cycle. Claims are reviewed on a regular and targeted basis. Means tested payments are reviewed at certain intervals or when there are indications that changes in circumstances have not been reported to the Department. Those in receipt of illness payments are called for a medical examination by the Department's medical assessors.

During 2003, some 320,000 reviews of entitlements were carried out by staff in my Department. The records of some 7,600 employers were inspected to ensure compliance with the Department's regulations and in particular to prevent and detect abuses of the system. These activities resulted in savings of €306 million in 2003.

A key objective of my Department's control strategy is to ensure that we pay the right person the right amount of money at the right time. A four pronged approach has been adopted by the Department to meet this objective, 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.

Systematic risk analysis is a key element of the control strategy. This entails the identification, by scheme managers, of areas of high risk of fraud and abuse in the schemes for which they are responsible and putting in place appropriate measures to address them in a systematic way. The benefit of this approach is that review activity is targeted in the most effective manner.

The Department is at present undertaking a number of specific control initiatives in its ten regions throughout the country, the outcomes of which will be evaluated with a view to expanding successful initiatives to other areas. These initiatives will feed into the process of re-focusing control activity to those areas and types of cases which present the highest risk of fraud and error.

The Department also intends to include surveys of the levels of fraud and error as an integral part of its control strategy with a view to identifying the types of claims which should be prioritised for review purposes. To date during 2004, one such survey has been undertaken, with two more planned for later in the year.

Prosecution of offenders is a key element in the Department's overall control approach. My Department's policy is to consider all cases of fraud for prosecution and revised prosecution guidelines were issued to staff in February 2003. The issue of these guidelines and an increased focus on the prosecution of offenders has had a significant impact on the number of cases submitted to the Chief State Solicitor's office to initiate criminal proceedings, with a total of 405 cases being referred in 2003 compared with 245 cases for the previous year. Current indications are that there will be in excess of 500 such cases in 2004.

Question No. 159 answered with QuestionNo. 131.
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