Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 344: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the progress made in preventing welfare fraud by non-Irish nationals who have returned to their home country but continue to claim jobseeker payments. [5684/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In late 2007, the Department identified a number of cases where non-Irish nationals were living in their native country and returning to Ireland on a monthly basis to sign for jobseekers payments.

Arising from this, the Department undertook a number of small scale residency checks on non-Irish nationals in receipt of jobseekers payment. Between October 2007 and February 2008 some 766 cases were investigated, of which 76 yielded savings of almost €760,000. In response to the findings of these initial checks, it was considered that a more targeted control approach to residency was required. From 26 February 2008, nationwide residency checks were introduced for non-Irish nationals on a jobseekers payment. This measure involved a home visit within 6 weeks of the first signing day and again between 6 to 8 months and at 12 months. The frequency of the visits was varied so as not to establish a predictable pattern. Throughout 2008 some 3,665 such residency checks were carried out, 403 of which yielded savings totalling of almost €3.3m.

In view of the level of risk identified, the Department decided in July 2008 not to make the EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) payment method available to new claimants for jobseekers payments for the first six months of their claim. Instead, they are paid weekly by means of Electronic Information Transfer (EIT) at a Post Office of their choice. This means that they must attend at the Post Office weekly to collect their payment. In general, the payment expires if not collected within a week and they would have to call to the local office to have the payment reinstated. Where two consecutive payments are not collected, the claim is automatically suspended. In addition, they must attend at their local social welfare office on a monthly basis to sign-on and to confirm that they are continuing to comply with the conditions of the scheme to be available for and genuinely seeking employment.

The Department is committed to ensuring that social welfare payments are only available to those who are entitled to them. In this regard the control programme of the Department is carefully monitored and measures are continuously refined to ensure that they remain effective.