Written answers

Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Department of Social Protection

Social Welfare Overpayments

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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564. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the statutory basis upon which her Department can deduct payments from persons who were overpaid a social welfare payment many years after the said overpayment took place. [37090/13]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Overpayments arise in cases where individuals receive social welfare benefit and/or assistance payments to which they are not entitled. People who have received an overpayment from the Department have a liability under law to refund the overpayment (Section 338 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2005 (as amended) refers). They have received money to which they were not entitled and the Department has a responsibility to ensure that all overpayments are recovered in full.

A debt will remain on a debt holder’s record until it is fully recovered. Recovery can be pursued up to future pension entitlements and following death, where an estate remains. Currently my Department does not apply interest or penalties on the amounts owing.

My Department administers over 70 schemes. It is a basic requirement that a person completes an application form in order that entitlement to a particular payment can be established. Section 241 (1) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 provides that “it shall be a condition of any person’s right to any benefit that s/he makes a claim for that benefit in the prescribed manner”. Therefore, where a person feels they have an entitlement to a particular scheme, there is a requirement that they make an application for that scheme within certain prescribed timeframes.

However, where a person has applied for a scheme and provided my Department with the necessary information and documentation, and that person is subsequently underpaid due to an incorrect calculation of their entitlement, the underpayment may be addressed at any time in the context of a review of the person’s claim.

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