Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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152. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of overpayments of a social welfare payment and or allowance wherein the overpayment that occurred was not the fault of the applicant; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19399/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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My Department categorises overpayments as fraud, non-fraud and estate cases. Fraud cases arise mainly on foot of false declarations by customers concerning their employment, income or family status. Non-fraud cases include those attributed to customer/third party error and those that are considered Departmental error. Estate cases arise where undisclosed means by customers come to light after their deaths. The Department is currently not in a position to publicly comment on overpayments recorded in 2012 as these figures form part of the statutory accounts of the Department and are subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General. However in 2011, there were a total of 63,310 overpayments amounting to €92.4m. Of these, a total of 6,062 overpayments, amounting to €5.5m were the result of Departmental error. This represents less than 6% of the total value of overpayments raised in 2011 and equates to approximately 0.03% of total scheme expenditure.

My Department endeavours to seek the maximum level of repayments from customers in order to encourage prompt repayment of all debts. My Department is fully committed to recovering 100% of all overpayments and they remain on a customer’s record until fully recovered.