13 Márta 2013, 09:30
The 2011 Appropriation Account, the Social Insurance Fund Account 2011, welfare overpayments and fraud initiatives will be on the agenda of the Committee of Public Accounts when it meets with the Secretary General, Department of Social Protection, tomorrow, Thursday, 14th March 2013.
13th March 2013
Committee Chairman John McGuinness TD said: “The Department makes welfare payments to around 1.4 million people each week and its provisional outturn for 2012 is €20.07 billion and at the end of 2011, it had 6,174 staff. The unemployment rate currently stands at 14.1%. Clearly, as the Department is in charge of such a large budget, there are numerous issues of interest to the Committee.
We will be keen for a progress update on the two new employment schemes in 2011,Tús and National Internship Scheme, in terms of take-up, moving onto employment, non-cooperation with schemes and sanctions for those who are not co-operating. Progress on the Public Services Card project and the target time for decisions on new claims, reviews and appeals will also be on the agenda.
Recoveries of overpayments in 2011 were 13% of the total debt, while a total of 47% of overpayment debt was greater than 5 years old at June 2012. We will be interested in hearing how the Department can improve on this and also how the recovery of overpayments can be increased. Only 244 of a possible 4,500 cases were referred to the Central Overpayments and Debt Management Unit to be recovered and we are keen to explore why these numbers are so low.
The update released by the Department last week highlighted the increase in anonymous reports from 16,917 in 2011 to 28, 022 in 2012. 18,000 of these warranted further investigation. The actual overpayments and savings as a result of these reports will be of interest to the Committee.”
This meeting will take place in Committee Room 1 at 10am tomorrow, Thursday, 14th March 2013.
Committee proceedings can be followed live here.
For further information please contact:
Ciaran Brennan,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +3531 618 3903
M: 086-0496518
F: +3531 618 4551
Committee of Public Accounts Membership
John McGuinness (Chairman)
Kieran O’Donnell (Vice Chairman)
Paul J Connaughton,
John Deasy,
Paschal Donohoe,
Gerald Nash,
Simon Harris,
Michael McCarthy,
Mary Lou McDonald,
Sean Fleming,
Eoghan Murphy,
Derek Nolan,
Shane Ross.