Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 November 2004
238 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will consider amending SI 227/96 to allow a distinction be made by an approved officer of his Department between fraudulent welfare overpayments and welfare overpayments which have arisen from a genuine misunderstanding on the part of the claimant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28061/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe repayment of social welfare overpayments is regulated by a code of practice, Statutory Instrument No. 227 of 1996. The code requires that, in the context of overpayments, due account be taken of the interests of taxpayers and social insurance contributors who finance the various social welfare payments as well as the ability of the person concerned to repay and, in this regard, that every effort be made to recover overpayments in full.
Where an overpayment has been assessed, the person concerned is afforded an opportunity to bring to the notice of the Department or health board any views he or she wishes to offer on the assessment of the overpayment and the proposed method of repayment. The person's views are taken into consideration before the matter is finalised. There is provision within the code for the repayment of an overpayment to be deferred, suspended, or cancelled, or for the rate of repayment to be reduced depending on the circumstances of the case. When determining the method and rate of repayment, the authorised officer is required to give consideration to any facts or circumstances relevant to the question of the recovery, and the circumstances in which it arose.
The code of practice already ensures that account is taken of a person's ability to repay an overpayment, whether this is attributable to misunderstanding or fraudulent intent, while at the same time ensuring that moneys incorrectly paid are recovered. In 2003, 17,000 cases of fraud, costing €13.7 million, were discovered, while customer or third party error accounted for 23,000 cases, at a cost of €17.6 million. Almost €17 million was repaid to the Department last year for overpayments.
239 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his estimate of the number of cases in the past two years in which his Department has initiated overpayment requests from social welfare recipients of deserted wife’s benefit or one parent family payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28062/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe total numbers of overpayments raised by my Department in the case of recipients of deserted wife's benefit and one parent family payment for each of the years from 2002 to date are set out in the following table.
|
Year |
Deserted wife’s benefit |
One parent family payment |
|
2002 |
45 |
585 |
|
2003 |
51 |
1,113 |
|
2004 to date |
71 |
2,027 |
Overpayments arise for a variety of reasons, including inadequate or incorrect information supplied by customers and fraudulent claiming. My Department's control programmes are aimed at ensuring that social welfare payments, funded by the taxpayer, are paid to those who are entitled to them and that payments wrongly made are recovered under the code of practice on overpayment recovery.
