There are over 620 staff working in areas related to control of fraud and abuse of the welfare system. As part of its control strategy the Department carries out detailed fraud & error surveys on individual schemes which provide evidence-based indicators of the levels of fraud & error for those schemes at that particular time. The level of fraud on most schemes is very low. The percentage of expenditure resulting from fraud identified in the Department's Fraud and Error surveys ranged from 0% for pensioners, to 0.1% for Illness Benefit, 0.8% for the Family Income Supplement, 1.8% for Child Benefit, 2.3% for the Disability Allowance and 6.4% for the One Parent Family Payment.
In relation to savings in 2009, the Department recorded control savings of nearly €484m. It must be noted that control activity was being focused on prevention of fraud and error at claim application stage. Savings made from the detection of bogus claims at application stage are not included in the Departments overall savings as the claim will not go into payment. However, this is the most cost effective mechanism of reducing losses through fraud and error in social welfare schemes. The number of criminal prosecutions in relation to social welfare fraud finalised in court for years 2000 to end February 2010 is set out in the tabular statement:
Criminal Prosecutions 2009 to end February 2010
Year
|
Criminal cases finalised in court
|
2000
|
199
|
2001
|
199
|
2002
|
168
|
2003
|
209
|
2004
|
273
|
2005
|
269
|
2006
|
266
|
2007
|
239
|
2008
|
324
|
2009
|
354
|
2010 (end Feb)
|
67
|
I regret that I am unable to provide the historical information sought by the Deputy in relation to staff numbers involved in control work since 2000.