Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 November 2020

Public Accounts Committee

2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 – Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 4 – Control over Welfare Payments

11:30 am

Mr. John McKeon:

Predominantly. What we do on child benefit we also do on one-parent payment and working family payment, and we are starting to do it on farm assist. On child benefit, we write out once every 18 months, not quite once a year, and we do it on a continuous basis. We send out what is called a continuing eligibility letter and we ask the parents to confirm certain things, including confirming that the child is still resident in the State. Each year we save €8 million to €10 million worth of payments of child benefit because we either do not get the continuing eligibility letter back or the information they provide strongly indicates that the child might no longer be in the State.

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