Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As he rightly pointed out, every euro that is fraudulently claimed is a euro taken out of the pockets of those who urgently need those payments. We must view fraud in that context.

The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the Department. I listened with great interest to what the Deputy said and I will examine all of the suggestions he has made. The expenditure of the Department exceeded €21 billion in 2009 in respect of approximately 50 schemes. During 2009 the Department processed 2.5 million claims and issued in excess of 83 million payments. It must be emphasised that the majority of people are receiving the entitlement due to them.

The objective of the Department's control strategy is to ensure that the right person is paid the right amount of money at the right time. The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the Department. Approximately 620 staff work in areas related to control of fraud and abuse of the welfare system. At the end of 2009 more than 750,000 individual claims were reviewed and the Department recorded control savings of approximately €484 million. The control savings target for 2010 is €533.31 million.

The level and types of fraud and error vary across schemes but customers typically incur fraud in situations such as failure to disclose their full means or increase in means; failure to disclose the true employment or residential status of their spouse, partner or dependants; claiming jobseeker's payments when they are in fact working; absenting themselves or their dependants being absent from the State; and working while claiming to be incapable of work.

In recent years the Department has undertaken a range of initiatives to tackle the problem, including increased control activity focused on the prevention of fraud and error at claim application stage.

This is the most cost effective mechanism of reducing losses through fraud and error in social welfare schemes. Significant advances have been made to reduce the risk of overpayment through systems "talking" to each other. With the introduction of the new service delivery modernisation, SDM, a greater number of the Department claims and payments are sharing a single technical platform. This basically stops double timing and the various systems being abused in that manner.

The Department is moving to a risk-based system of claim review, which focuses resources on the most appropriate cases. This involves assigning and recording a risk rating at the award and review stage. In order to identify fraud and error levels in schemes the Department carries out detailed fraud and error surveys on individual schemes which provide evidence-based indicators for levels of fraud and error on those schemes at a particular time.

The Department has also introduced a series of certificate processes in its schemes. Certificates issue to the customer for completion, for example to targeted customer groups by age, payment method, location or country. Certificates that fail to be returned or are completed incorrectly may result in suspension or termination of claims.

As a fraud preventative measure the option to receive payments by electronic fund transfer, into a bank account, was removed for new claimants of jobseeker payments and that addresses one of the Deputy's issues. Border regions put an increased emphasis on control of claims from applicants with a previous address in Northern Ireland. One-parent family payment recipients with earnings are the subject of an ongoing review. Data matching requests to other Departments and agencies is considered a vital tool for targeting effective reviews and successfully achieving savings. New anti-fraud measures have been included in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2009 which provide for the transfer of bulk information relating to recipients of social welfare payments to the competent authority of another member state, international organisation or other country with which reciprocal agreements have been made.

One of the anticipated advantages of the introduction of the public service card, which will include a photograph and signature, is that it will help to reduce fraud and error which result from the incorrect identification of benefit claimants. The special Investigation unit of the Department works with other agencies such as Revenue, NERA, Customs and the Garda to ensure that control activity is being targeted at high risk categories of claimants or employers.

Since January 2010, members of the public can report suspected social welfare fraud anonymously to the Department by completing a new online form on the Department's website at www.welfare.ie. The number of anonymous reports from members of the public has increased dramatically, with over 6,400 made at the end of 2009 compared to approximately 1,000 in 2008. Each report is followed up. The Department is committed to ensuring that social welfare payments are available to those who are entitled to them. In this regard the control programme of the Department is carefully monitored and the various measures are continuously refined to ensure that they remain effective.

I assure the Deputy that I will ask my officials to review the suggestions he has made. We all have a duty to ensure that fraud is minimised so that we can pay those who badly need the support of the State and so that we may retain the money for the targeted groups. Savings can be used over time to make improvements. The Deputy has mentioned the various schemes and I am anxious to see when we get the new transfer of powers as regards CE, RSS, CSP schemes whether we can pay fewer people not to work and pay more to be active in community services.

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