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:

When we call something fraud, we are pretty certain it is fraud. Deputy MacSharry will remember that we have taken steps in recent years to only classify something as fraud where there is no chance that it might be a customer error or Department error. Regarding the €116 million, €31.3 million is from fraud, which is between 27% and 30%. Customer error accounts for €45 million, which is about 40%. Official error accounts for about €17.5 million. Of that, €12 million relates to the illness benefit case so if one takes the illness benefit issue out, it is €5.5 million, or about 5%. In estate cases, where the estate has to contact the Department and disclose assets and income after the person dies, we sometimes find that people had money that they might not have disclosed to us when they were alive. Those estate cases account for €22.6 million or about 20%.

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