Social Welfare Overpayments

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 May 2017

Tuesday, 2 May 2017

Ceisteanna (547, 548, 549, 550, 551, 557, 565)

John Brady

Ceist:

547. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of control related reviews undertaken in 2016; and the number of cases in which an overpayment was identified. [19750/17]

John Brady

Ceist:

548. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Social Protection if the figure of €468 million in control savings published by his Department in November 2016 includes savings which arose due to error by his Department, due to error by the claimant and due to fraud; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19751/17]

John Brady

Ceist:

549. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Social Protection the total value of overpayments in 2016 as a percentage of total departmental expenditure. [19752/17]

John Brady

Ceist:

550. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of cases in which an overpayment arose due to error by his Department, due to error by the claimant, in estate cases and due to fraud in each of the years 2014 to 2016; and the value of each. [19753/17]

John Brady

Ceist:

551. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Social Protection the total value of overpayments recovered as a result of error by his Department, due to error by the claimant, in estate cases and due to fraud for each of the years 2011 to 2016. [19754/17]

Róisín Shortall

Ceist:

557. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Social Protection the total savings arising from the detection of social welfare fraud as opposed to control measures in each of the past three years; the basis upon which these savings are calculated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19773/17]

Róisín Shortall

Ceist:

565. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of cases of suspected fraud uncovered by his Department in each of the past five years; the number of cases of suspected fraud referred to the Garda; the number of overpayments due to departmental error; the number of overpayments due to other reasons; the amount of money involved in each relevant category, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19840/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Social Protection

I propose to take Questions Nos. 547 to 551, inclusive, 557 and 565 together.

Nearly 950,000 entitlement reviews and investigations were conducted across the Department’s schemes in 2016. These reviews yielded €506 million in control savings for the year. Reviews and investigations of entitlements are conducted by social welfare staff, social welfare inspectors and inspectors assigned to the Special Investigations Unit and a combination of desk-based assessment of entitlements, direct enquiries with recipients of social welfare payments, site and employer visits and face-to-face interviews are used.

The value of savings recorded by staff for the year 2016 was €506m. Savings are calculated when a social welfare claim is reduced in value or terminated following a review or investigation initiated by the Department. Control savings do not include any element where the customer voluntarily told the Department of changes in their means or circumstances which resulted in a reduction in the rate of payment or termination of the claim. Departmental error cases are also excluded from the savings figure.

The basis of the savings calculated is scheme specific. The nature of the scheme is taken into account - in particular whether it is short-term (e.g. jobseeker’s benefit or supplementary welfare allowance) or more long-term (e.g. State Pension Contributory/Non-Contributory). Also taken into account is the length of time a person who has a claim reduced or terminated is expected to remain off a particular scheme or at the reduced rate of payment.

A breakdown of the figure across social welfare schemes is set out in table 1.

Table 1: Savings recorded by social welfare scheme 2016

Scheme	Savings Recorded	Scheme	Savings Recorded
Jobseekers Allowance & Benefit	€172m	Disability, Invalidity and Illness	€45m
Pensions and household benefits	€60m	One parent family payments	€77m
Carer’s Allowance & Benefit	€9m	Child Benefit	€69m
Family Income Supplement	€42m	Supplementary Welfare Allowance	€26m
Employer inspections/ reviews	€6m	TOTAL	€506m

The Department raised €110m in overpayments in 2016 of which €41m related to customer fraud – further information on this is set out in tables 2 and 3. Total expenditure on the Department’s programmes and schemes in 2016 was €19.2 billion. Overpayments as a percentage of total programmes expenditure was, therefore, of the order of 0.5%. The value of overpayment recovered from customers for the years 2011 to 2016 is set out in table 4.

Table 2: Value of overpayments recorded by category: 2011 to 2016

-	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011
-	€m	€m	€m	€m	€m	€m
Customer Fraud	€41.0	€49.0	€52.5	€61.9	€41.0	€34.9
Departmental Error	€ 2.3	€ 2.9	€ 5.0	€ 6.7	€ 7.6	€ 5.5
Customer error	€46.7	€46.0	€49.8	€43.6	€35.8	€40.5
Estate cases	€20.0	€17.4	€17.1	€15.0	€12.6	€11.5
Total	€110.0	€115.3	€124.4	€127.2	€97.0	€92.4

Table 3: Number of overpayments recorded by category: 2011 to 2016

-	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011
Customer Fraud	16,225	21,407	27,437	27,489	20,700	20,585
Departmental Error	4,965	4,157	6,044	7,056	5,000	6,062
Customer error	54,674	55,536	56,975	49,693	40,800	36,292
Estate	615	499	477	464	413	371
Total	76,479	81,599	90,933	84,702	66,913	63,310

Table 4: Value of overpayments recovered: 2011 to 2016

-	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011
-	€m	€m	€m	€m	€m	€m
Sums Recovered	82.0	82.5	86.3	70.7	53.4	51.5

The number of complaints referred to An Garda Síochána for prosecution under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001following consideration by the Department is set out in table 5.

Table 5: Cases referred to An Garda Síochána for prosecution: 2012 to 2016

2016	2015	2014	2013	2012
160	151	115	68	84

I hope this clarifies the matters for the Deputies.