Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 362: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the additional tough measures being taken to deal with welfare fraud; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13384/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the Department. A key objective of the Department's control strategy is to ensure that we pay the right person the right amount of money at the right time. Over 600 staff at local, regional and national level are engaged on a full or part-time basis on work related to the control of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system including a dedicated section dealing with identity fraud in PPS No. allocations.

A four pronged control strategy has been adopted by the Department, namely prevention of fraud and error at the initial claim stage, early detection through effective review of claims in payment, measures to deter fraud and the pursuit and recovery of overpayments. Key elements of the Department's control strategy include systematic risk analysis, surveys of the levels of fraud and error within schemes and matching the Department's scheme data with other bodies' data e.g. Revenue's commencement of employment and earnings data. These control tools help identify the types of claims which should be prioritised for review purposes.

The Department targets control activity at high risk categories of claimants. In recent times examples include the Special Investigation Unit undertaking more regular interviews of jobseeker recipients, particularly those with high risk ratings; border regions have put an increased emphasis on controls on claims from applicants with a previous address in Northern Ireland; Department officials are involved in a number of high visibility multi-agency projects; one parent family recipients with earnings are targeted for review; the frequency of issue of mail shots to validate continued entitlement to child benefit has doubled, to 3 monthly intervals for EU worker customers and 6 monthly intervals (3 monthly from April this year) for resident non-Irish national customers; new data matches with additional external bodies have been initiated.

As a preventative measure, in 2008 the option to receive payments by Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) was removed for new claimants for jobseeker payments. They must attend in person at the post office each week thus confirming their continued residency in the country. Their claim is automatically suspended where two consecutive payments are not collected.

During 2008, almost €476 million in social welfare payments was saved through fraud and error control measures which is an increase of €29million on the previous year. More than 560,000 social welfare claims were reviewed and over 1,000 reports of possible fraud were received from members of the public. The records of some 3,203 employers were inspected to ensure compliance with the Department's regulations and in particular to prevent and detect abuses of the system. At the end of 2008, 357 cases of social welfare fraud were forwarded to the Chief State Solicitors Office for the initiation of prosecution proceedings and 328 cases were finalised in court.

I am committed to ensuring that social welfare payments are available to those who are entitled to them. I am also determined to ensure that abuse of the system is prevented and is dealt with effectively when detected. In this regard the control programme of the Department is carefully monitored and the various measures are continuously refined to ensure that they remain effective.