Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 144: To ask the Minister for Social Protection, following on from recent press statements about the level of reporting of social welfare fraud, if she will release to this Deputy and the media the actual percentage of proven fraud, not just suspected fraud, as it relates to the €25.9 million figure for 2010; her views on these matters, especially in relation to her poor performance in getting the real figures for proven fraud into the national media and debate; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10134/12]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 157: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide the definition of fraud as used for working purposes by her Department. [10309/12]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 160: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide a detailed breakdown of the €645m in control savings achieved in 2011 by scheme, clerical error, fraud; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10312/12]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 161: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide a detailed breakdown of the control savings achieved over the past five years by scheme, clerical error, fraud; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10313/12]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 162: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide a definition of control savings as used for working purposes by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10314/12]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 164: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide a detailed breakdown of the way cost savings estimations of the level of excess expenditure based on the case reviews which are prevented from being incurred in the future are calculated. [10316/12]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 165: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the amount of the €645 million in control savings in 2011 is attributable to error; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10317/12]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 167: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the estimated amount of money wasted in clerical error in her Department over the past five years. [10319/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 144, 157, 160 to 162, inclusive, 164, 165 and 167 together.

The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the Department which processes in excess of 2 million claims each year and makes payments to some 1.4 million people every week. Social welfare fraud is not a victimless crime. However, it is important to recognise that the vast majority of people are receiving the entitlement due to them.

My Department has a comprehensive programme of reviews of customers claims across all social welfare schemes. These reviews include a full review of the customer's means and circumstances to ensure that all eligibility criteria are fulfilled. Where the means or circumstances have changed to a level that impinges on the rate in payment, then the claim will be examined by a deciding officer.

Where, following a review of a claim in payment, it is confirmed that the customer had been receiving a payment to which he/she was not entitled, or were receiving a payment at a higher rate than entitled to, a deciding officer makes a revised decision on the entitlement. Deciding officers decide the effective date of a revised decision having regard to the new facts or evidence and the circumstances of the case. This can result in the assessment of an overpayment.

Where the deciding officer is of the view that the customer inadvertently failed to notify the Department of the relevant change in means or circumstances, the case is recorded as customer error. Departmental error overpayments are recorded where the error was due to clerical, systems or administrative error.

The deciding officer may decide that a case is one of suspected fraud where it appears to him/her that the customer knowingly gave false or misleading information or wilfully concealed relevant information. The Department does not categorise a case as fraudulent unless the fraud is proven in court.

Criminal prosecutions are taken against persons who defraud the social welfare payments system and employers who fail to carry out their statutory obligations. The Department ensures that cases which merit prosecution are forwarded for consideration of legal proceedings and must ensure that all necessary evidential proofs are available. During 2010, the Department sent a total of 209 alleged fraud cases to the Chief State Solicitor's Office (CSSO) for criminal prosecution. In addition to the 209 cases sent directly by the Department to the CSSO a further 132 cases were referred to the Gardai for consideration of criminal proceedings to be taken under the Criminal Justice (Fraud and Theft) Act, 2001. In total, the Department referred 341 cases for legal proceedings by way of either the social welfare or criminal justice legislation. In 2010, a total of 253 criminal cases were finalised in court. The following table is a breakdown of the classification of overpayments from 2006 to 2010.

Control savings are an estimate of the value of the various control activities across the schemes in payment. Control savings represent an estimate of the value of prevented expenditure on fraudulent claims over a future period. These control savings refer to future expenditure that would have been incurred but for this control work. Without this control work the social welfare expenditure would over time increase by this amount. Control savings are used as a performance indicator for year-on-year activities. Control savings do not include any cases of departmental or clerical error. Control savings do not include any cases where the customer voluntarily told the Department of their means or circumstances, which resulted in a change to their rate of payment. All of these control savings arise from proactive reviews on claims in payment. They are not broken down between fraud or suspected fraud and error. As outlined above, the overpayments assessed are categorised as suspected fraud, customer and departmental error.

The following table shows the control savings achieved in the past 5 years per scheme.