Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Within three weeks of the PUP being launched, more than 500,000 people were in payment. In the initial two months to the end of April, my Department processed some 900,000 claims. The delivery of the scheme on such a scale and in such a short time represented a major achievement by my Department.

The recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General found that approximately 9.4% of claims awarded at different points in time during 2020 did not comply with the strict conditions of the scheme. However, he also noted that some of these claimants would have been entitled to another payment if they did not receive the PUP, so that the net overpayment rate was probably lower.

He also noted that the Department's observations that excluding periods when there was a high level of churn when restrictions were being imposed or relaxed, the gross overpayment rate was approximately 6%. It was not out of line with working age social welfare schemes generally. We would, of course, have preferred if there were no overpayment, but my Department always has to strike a balance between applying tight controls and checks on claims on the one hand and not frustrating a person's entitlement to a payment on the other. This was particularly the case in the extraordinary and exceptional circumstances of Covid-19. Applying normal controls would have meant very long delays in processing the unprecedented number of claims received, which would have led to severe financial hardship for many people and undermined the sense of social solidarity necessary to sustain the public health restrictions and combat the virus.

Notwithstanding those concerns, a range of controls were implemented and have continued to be enhanced over the past 18 months, including, for example, matching against Revenue records. The matching exercise is proving effective in early detection of cases of people working while claiming the PUP.

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