Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the Department, which processes in excess of 2 million claims each year and makes payments to some 1.4 million people every week. However, it is important to recognise that the majority of people receive the entitlement due to them.

In terms of control work, in 2009 nearly 751,000 cases were reviewed by the Department and some €484 million was recorded as savings achieved. In 2010, more than 929,000 cases were recorded as reviews and some €483 million was recorded as being achieved in control savings. However, due to industrial action, the total 2010 control savings and reviews were not fully recorded. In the period January to August 2011, nearly 401,000 cases were reviewed and some €388 million control savings have been recorded. The savings achieved to date this year are substantially ahead of the €281 million achieved in the same period last year. Under the fraud initiative 2011– 13, there is a provisional target of achieving €625 million in control savings in 2012. This is an increase of €85 million on the 2011 target.

Control savings are an estimate of savings from various control activities across the schemes in payment, but are not actual moneys recovered by the Department. If this control work did not take place, social welfare expenditure would increase by this level over time.

Control activity is also focused on the prevention of fraud and error at new claim stage. This is the most cost effective mechanism of reducing losses through fraud and error in social welfare schemes. Savings made from the prevention of fraud and error at application stage cannot be estimated as the claims in question will not go into payment.

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There are some 620 staff whose work includes control activities. This figure includes staff involved in the processing and payment of new claims, including staff in investigation units who work at local, regional and headquarters levels. Some 200 of those staff work full-time on control work, while the other 420 staff are responsible both for routine investigations in relation to new claims on the various schemes and for reviews of customers' claims. Of the 200 inspectors, 89 are in the special investigation unit, SIU, whose exclusive function is fraud prevention, detection and deterrence.

I recently launched a new fraud initiative 2011– 13, which is aimed at putting in place a range of actions to combat fraud and abuse of the social welfare system and to ensure public confidence and trust in the system. There are a number of themes and approaches in this plan as follows: greater inter-agency co-operation among public bodies at national and local level to combat fraud and abuse; greater presence of social welfare inspectors on the ground; the targeting of sectors where fraud is more likely to occur; new ways to recover overpayments to be examined; increased penalties for those operating in the hidden economy to be examined; greater liaison at national and, in particular, at local level with employers, their representative organisations and businesses generally to ensure good information exchange on emerging fraudulent trends in the labour market and to maintain a fair and level playing pitch for all enterprises; the roll-out of the new public service card; and the enhancement of the technical and auditing capacity of the Department through modern data matching and data interrogation techniques.

I consider that the combination of these elements of the plan will lead to more focused and efficient activity and to more trust in and credibility of the social protection system. This fraud initiative is a work in progress and covers the period 2011 to 2013. It will be reviewed periodically and updated, as required, given emerging trends.

Social welfare fraud undermines public confidence in the entire system as well as being unfair to other recipients of social welfare payments, businesses run on a legitimate basis and taxpayers. As Minister, I am very conscious of the need to protect public money and I am determined to ensure that abuse of the system is prevented and is dealt with effectively when detected.

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