Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

In fact, the Department is now working on the basis of not only fraud and error surveys but, as a result of those, of identifying the high-risk categories, and at the time of application even noting which are the ones that need to be constantly reviewed. For example, the Department is aware that within child benefit there are certain sectors that must be followed up frequently. In the case of the lone parent allowance, cohabitation is a problem but problems also arise where those lone parents are working - this is where they are more likely to exceed the qualifyication criteria for the particular scheme. Equally, with some areas of disability there are some who will undoubtedly be permanently on the payment and there are others who need to be constantly reviewed. The Department does do that, and has become expert at identifying high-risk groups.

The Deputy mentioned in particular the example of the lone parent. It is worth reiterating that if overpayments have been made to a cohabiting parent, and the parent says the cohabitation only started last week, there is no evidence that would show that it has in fact been going on for two or three years and allow the Department to claim overpayment for that period. However, the Comptroller and Auditor General has said that is where we should be able to make savings. If a pensioner dies, in contrast, the Department can check exactly when that happened - we have a system of cross-references now anyway - and know when the overpayment started, so it can claim the money back. Thus, there is variation among the different schemes.

If any amount of money is given incorrectly, every effort should be made to try to retrieve it for the State. However, it was established that overpayments amounted to an equivalent of 0.32% of the total social welfare expenditure. This must be viewed in the context of the number of payments being made every week, which is 1.25 million. I accept it is important to identify high-risk groups, and that is what we do. It is important to conduct regular reviews on as many recipients as possible and retrieve money that has been overpaid.

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