David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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559. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of allegations of social welfare fraud recorded by his Department in each of the years from 2006 to 2016; the number of investigations that arose out of those allegations in each of the years from 2006 to 2016; the number of cases of allegations of welfare fraud that were investigated and found to have been instances of welfare fraud in each of the years from 2006 to 2016; the number of cases of allegations of welfare fraud that were not instances of welfare fraud in each of the years 2006 to 2016, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19794/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Reports from members of the public on their suspicions of social welfare fraud or wrongdoing are an important element in my Department’s overall efforts to prevent and detect fraudulent activity. Welfare fraud can be reported in a variety of ways. The Department provides a dedicated service on its website to enable reports to be made. A concerned member of the public can also write to the Department or telephone with information.

The highest proportion of reports processed in recent years relate to jobseekers payments, supplementary welfare allowance and one parent family payments highlighting suspicions about suspected cases of working and claiming, co-habitation and non-residency.

The Department is not able to make use of all the information it receives. This is often the case where insufficient information is provided to identify a person or the person might not be in receipt of a social welfare payment. In addition, there are many situations where the information provided about a person may not constitute fraud and may already be known or may be permitted under the terms of a particular scheme.

The number of allegations of social welfare fraud recorded as received in the Department in each of the years from 2006 to 2016 and the number referred for investigation is set out in the table.

TABLE: Reports of suspected social welfare fraud from members of the public received and referred for investigation 2006-2016

* Data for 2006 to 2008 was not compiled in the same manner as in later years.

Each report receives a preliminary examination for relevance and to identify the persons concerned and if they are in receipt of a social welfare payment. Where a person can be identified and sufficient information is provided to warrant a further examination, the report is referred to the relevant scheme area in the Department, to a Social Welfare Inspector for further investigation or to the Special Investigations Unit for more serious allegations. A payment is not suspended or stopped on the basis of the report received – instead this happens when evidence of wrong-doing has been ascertained by the appropriate scheme area.

All reports are received on an anonymous and confidential basis. To preserve the integrity of the public’s reporting system, the Department does not track the outcome of the individual allegations of wrongdoing received. However, internal assurance checks by the Department indicates that around 1 in 3 reports received results in the payments being made to individuals being reduced or terminated.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.