Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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87. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if she will provide, in tabular form, the number of fraudulent payment claims identified in each of the past four years; the monetary value of these; the percentage of these that were claimed, through the post office; through electronic funds transfer. [29981/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The only reliable measure of excess payments by the Department through fraudulent claiming is by way of fraud overpayments raised. To prove fraud requires careful investigation of the case, establishment of the facts often under a cautioned interview, a disallowance of payment by the deciding officer and the setting up of an overpayment in respect of the historical period, where that is possible.

Overpayments generally arise as a result of revised decisions on entitlement made by deciding officers. These officers decide the effective date of a revised decision having regard to the new facts or new evidence and the circumstances of the case. An overpayment is assessed for the period that a person was not entitled to a payment.

Information on overpayments categorised as fraud for the years 2011-2014 is as follows:

In 2014, the total value of overpayments raised amounted to €124.4m which represents 0.6% of total Departmental expenditure. Overpayments arising from activity suspected of being fraudulent represent 0.3% of total Departmental expenditure in 2014.

The Department does not maintain records of overpayments by the original method of payment.