David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 340: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs further to Parliamentary Question No. 40 of 15 June 2006, the amount of money that was recovered by claimants by his Department following the return of letters and subsequent termination of claims after each respective mailshot; the reason for the termination of claims and numerical breakdown of same respectively; the methods through which the moneys were recovered; the average timescale for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25031/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The detailed statistics requested by the Deputy are not available. While records of the number of claims terminated as a result of each mailshot are recorded, corresponding overpayments assessed are not recorded separately, but they do form part of overall overpayment statistics.

Child Benefit claims terminated as a result of mailshot control activity do not necessarily result in the assessment of an overpayment. The return of an un-delivered mailshot may after investigation result in the claim being terminated as the current whereabouts of the customer cannot be established.

Similarly it may be established that the person has left the state but the date may not be known. In these cases an overpayment cannot be assessed as it is not possible to clearly establish that the person received a benefit for a period in which they had no entitlement. In such circumstances, the claim is terminated from a current date and the record flagged to indicate the need to review the claim for a potential overpayment if the customer re-applies for benefit in the future.

Child Benefit Overpayments arise for a variety of reasons viz:

—where the family or child(ren) leave the state and do not notify the Department.

—where a child leaves the household.

—where a child leaves full-time education.

—where a child is deceased.

Recovery of Child Benefit overpayments is effected either by deduction from current entitlements or by cash recovery.

The following table provides details of Child Benefit overpayments assessed for each year from 2001 to 2005.

The percentage of overpayments recovered by deduction from on-going entitlement is approximately 75%, with the balance being made by cash refund.

The timescale for complete re-imbursement of amounts overpaid varies greatly and depends both on the amount of the overpayment and the repayment arrangement agreed by the Department having taken into account the customers' ability to repay.