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.