Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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246. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of benefit fraud inspectors working in her Department her plans to employ more inspectors; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11786/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The control process is an integral part of the day-to-day operations of the Department and all staff involved in the administration of the various social welfare schemes are acutely aware of the need to implement appropriate controls at every stage of the process. The exclusive function of the Department’s Special Investigation Unit, SIU, is to investigate and report on fraud and abuse of social welfare schemes. It involves a broad range of management, liaison, enforcement, investigative and intelligence gathering duties and operates at the high or more organised end of social welfare fraud and abuse. The Unit carries out a wide range of control activities and projects and it also works closely with Revenue staff in Joint Investigation Units, with staff from the National Employment Rights Authority, the Gardaí and other compliance and enforcement agencies.

There are currently 91 staff in the SIU. In addition, 5 others are seconded to the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and 2 are in the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB). The secondment of 20 members of the Garda Síochána to the Department to assist the SIU with fraud investigation work has been agreed by myself, my colleague Alan Shatter T.D., Minister of Justice and the Garda Commissioner. This proposal is being progressed at present and I expect the officers to be seconded to the Department over the coming months. Other inspectors of the Department are also actively involved in control investigations as part of their day to day activities.

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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247. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will confirm the approximate timeframe after a suspected case of benefit fraud is reported to her Department that the matter is investigated by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11787/14]

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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248. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will confirm of those suspected benefit fraud cases that have been referred to her Department by members of the public that have resulted in a prosecution or a person's benefit being cut the percentage which consisted of jobseeker's allowance claims, disability allowance claims, one parent family claims, and carer's allowance claims; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11788/14]

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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249. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of investigations that are pending following reports from the public of suspected benefit fraud cases to her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11794/14]

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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250. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of cases of suspected benefit fraud reported to her Department by members of the public that have resulted in a claimant's benefit being cut and a prosecution for benefit fraud; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11795/14]

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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251. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of cases of suspected benefit fraud that were reported to her Department in the past three years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11796/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 247 to 251, inclusive, together.

The Department of Social Protection receives reports of possible fraud from members of the public in relation to the operation of its schemes. A dedicated phone number and a facility on the Department’s website is available for this purpose. It should be borne in mind that while there is often a perception of fraud, when a case is examined the individual may, in fact, be doing something that is allowed under the rules of the particular payment that they receiving. For example, a person can work and receive a One Parent Family Payment, provided their earnings are within the limits and the Department is aware of the situation.

All anonymous or confidential reports are examined and, where relevant, are referred to scheme areas or inspectors for follow-up action. While a payment is not suspended or stopped on the basis of an anonymous report, the report may, however, “trigger” a review of a customer’s entitlement. Anonymous reports are not available to Deciding Officers when they are making their decisions on cases. The Deciding Officer’s decision must be based on the full facts and circumstances of the case and, as a result, statistics are not available on the outcome of anonymous reports. The following are the number of anonymous reports received in the Department’s Control Division in the period 2011 to 2013:

There were 22,420 reports processed in 2013. A report of suspected fraud was referred to the relevant area for examination in 15,431 of these cases and 6,989 other cases were not referred for various reasons such as, not possible to process due to lack of information, no claim being in payment or the information reported had no impact on entitlement.

The following is the scheme breakdown of the reports referred to scheme areas for further investigation:

The total scheme breakdown is more than the 15,431 cases referred as some clients may be in receipt of more than one payment.

As outlined above, anonymous reports are used to “trigger” or instigate investigations but they do not form any part of the evidence and are not taken into account when the review of the customer’s payment is being decided. Therefore, detailed statistics of the timeframe taken to investigate anonymous reports, the number of investigations pending or the outcomes of anonymous reports are unavailable. Furthermore, anonymous or confidential reports of abuse do not form any part of the evidence when a case is being considered for prosecution.