Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 343: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the amount of funds that were recovered from control activity by her Department in each of the past five years, detailing consistently the year in which the fraud was perpetrated or the year the money was recovered; and the percentage of the total overpayment or fraud these recovered amounts represent. [40447/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The amount of overpayments attributed to fraud and monies recovered for years 2004 to 2008 requested by the Deputy is set-down in the tabular statements hereunder. Overpayments are categorised and reported by fraud, customer/third party error, Departmental error and Estates. The most common method of recovering overpayments is through instalments rather than in a single lump sum. Generally the majority of recoveries recouped in any single year will relate to overpayments which came to light in previous years.

Recoveries are reported by the scheme from which the initial overpayment arose and it is not currently possible to produce a report indicating whether these recoveries are in respect of fraud or non fraud. As such categorisation is not conducted by the Central Overpayments and Debt Management Unit it is not possible to provide the percentage of the total fraudulent overpayments recouped by the Department. Overpayments may be recovered in the following ways:

· a single payment covering the full amount owed

· regular periodic payments

· deduction(s) from the customers social welfare payment

· by taking civil proceedings

Amount of Overpayments Attributed to Fraud or Suspected Fraud

Total Cash Recoveries and Sums Withheld