Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, I apologise for her absence. I am standing in for her. I am a Minister of State in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection as well as in the Department of Health and the Department of Justice and Equality. The Minister apologises that she has another engagement.

I thank Senator Rose Conway-Walsh for raising this very important issue. It is important that arrangements relating to such matters are highlighted from time to time. I welcome that the Senator has done it. I accept the point she made about compassion and understanding particularly when it comes to our senior citizens and families of people with disabilities.I have seen that compassion and understanding in respect of payments, for example, the recent restoration of the carer's grant, which 101,000 families are claiming. Having travelled around the country, though, there are a couple of thousand more people who are not claiming it. We must focus on improving that situation.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection processes in excess of 2 million applications for supports each year and makes payments to some 1.4 million people every week. There are many people in the system. The majority of those who are supported by the Department are exercising their legitimate rights and receiving their appropriate entitlements.

Control of abuse of the social welfare system is one of the Department's three high-level functions. Activity in this area is guided by the 2014-18 compliance and anti-fraud strategy. The Department publishes an annual report on how it is achieving its targets and the priority areas for action for the following year.

Overpayments generally arise as a result of a revision in the amount that a customer is entitled to receive. Where fraud has been suspected and a customer is no longer entitled to a payment because he or she returned to work, recovered from an illness or other changes in his or her circumstances, overpayments are most likely to arise.

There are three circumstances in which overpayments can arise after a customer of the Department dies. First, minor overpayments can arise in the days immediately after the death and where notification has not been made to the Department or the death has not been registered. Second and more rarely, overpayments can arise where a family member, agent or other person continues to encash the pension or other social welfare payment due to the deceased. Third, an overpayment of social welfare can be determined during the winding up of the deceased's estate. This can happen when the schedule of the deceased's assets is received in the Department and it is assessed that he or she had been receiving means-tested payments beyond his or her entitlement. This is often the case where the deceased person did not disclose or fully disclose money held in financial institutions, had investments or did not disclose an interest in property or land.

In 2017, there was €14.4 million in overpayments in respect of 517 deceased customers. Of this amount, some €14.3 million was assessed in respect of 408 customers who had undisclosed or underdisclosed assets at the time of their deaths. The average value of these cases was approximately €35,000. The balance of €100,000 in overpayments related to cases where a payment was made after death, with an average value of less than €800 per case. At the end of March 2018, just over €1.6 million was outstanding in respect of all overpayments assessed during 2017.

In addition to its estates unit, the Department has a central debt management service that can provide specialist advice to any person who needs assistance. I trust this information addresses the Senator's question. I will bring the points she raised to the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty.