Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 134: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the outcome of the fraud and abuse risk assessments undertaken of the four schemes examined in 2007; and the schemes that will be examined in 2008. [5259/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Risk management was identified in my Department's 2003 Control Strategy as a key element in the control of fraud and abuse of schemes. The objectives of risk management are to identify those schemes where there is a high risk of fraud and abuse, from internal and external control perspectives, and to identify the high risk areas within schemes. This ensures that control activity is focused on areas of high risk and available resources are targeted effectively. As part of this process, scheme managers determine the extent to which their existing control practices are sufficient to counter the risks of fraud and abuse and following on from this, they prepare action plans to deal with the risks identified. In 2007, risk assessments were completed on illness benefit, widow and widower's pension, disablement benefit, employment support schemes and state pension contributory or transition.

All of these schemes, apart from disablement benefit, were assessed as low risk. In the case of illness benefit, the low risk assessment was validated by a recently completed Fraud and Error Survey which determined a fraud and error rate of 0.4% in expenditure terms. The low risk assessment in the case of state pension, contributory or transition, can be attributed to the new computer system used to administer the scheme, which was introduced in the last two years. Control was one of the key elements taken into account in the design of the new system and the related procedures and processes. Disablement benefit was assessed as medium risk. This was attributed in the main to the stand-alone computer system used to administer the scheme, which is not integrated with the Department's mainstream computer systems.