Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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572. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of fraud reports received by his Department in 2016; the number of these reports which resulted in social welfare payments being ceased; the number of these cases in which prosecutions for fraud were brought against persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19995/17]

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 the 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.

In 2016, 18,744 reports were received and of these, 15,162 were referred for further investigation. 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.

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, directly to a Social Welfare Inspector, or to the Special Investigations Unit for more serious allegations. A payment is not suspended or stopped on the basis of the report received but 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 or any review or investigation. Therefore, it is not possible to say how many of the cases reported are subsequently prosecuted.