Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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198. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the expenditure on the campaign 'Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All' launched by his Department, including the expenditure on advertising, including online, print and broadcast advertising and the national poster campaign; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21068/17]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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199. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the way in which anti-fraud measures saved his Department over €500 million in 2016; the areas in which savings were made, the payments or schemes where savings were made due to these measures and the savings made in each of these payments or schemes; if any of the €500 million was saved as a result of recouping overpayments made by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21069/17]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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200. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons caught for social welfare fraud in the past ten years, by county; the action that was taken in these cases; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21094/17]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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201. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the details of the new campaign to deal with social welfare fraud; the number of incidents that have been detected to date, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21095/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 198 to 201, inclusive, together.

The Department administers over 70 separate schemes and services, which affect the lives of almost every person in the State. In 2016, some 1.7 million applications for benefit, assistance and access to schemes were received and processed and over 82 million individual payments were made to people across all age groups and to employers. The scale of its operations and expenditure demand that a robust and integrated range of control and anti-fraud measures are in place. Measures to prevent and detect fraud and enhance controls across the Department’s various schemes are set out in the Compliance and Anti-Fraud Strategy which covers the period 2014 – 2018.

The “Welfare cheats cheat us all” publicity campaign is designed to:

- Promote discussion on the topic of social welfare fraud and challenge the perceptions of those who see it as a victimless crime;

- Encourage reporting of suspected/known social welfare fraud. The “direct marketing” element of the campaign appeals to the public to report fraud and makes is easier for them to do so. It also affords an opportunity to increase awareness of the Department’s fraud reporting contact numbers and online reporting options;

- Demonstrate that the Government and Department takes the issue of social welfare fraud very seriously and that it will investigate and prosecute, where this is found to be warranted; and

- Demonstrate that the Department is very conscious of its obligations, as one of the largest spending Departments in the State, and the importance of protecting the integrity of the social welfare system.

The delivery of the campaign will achieve a balance of coverage across all demographics and regions and incorporate print, national and regional radio stations, digital and outdoor advertising. The national and regional radio, print and outdoor advertising will run for a period of two weeks, with a longer timeframe of 4 to 6 weeks for digital/online advertising.

The cost of the advertising campaign is €165,988 excluding VAT. It includes all design and advertising costs associated with the campaign (print advertising, national and regional radio advertising, outdoor and online/digital advertising). No additional costs arise in staff resources, website development or the provision of the telephone reporting facility.

Nearly 950,000 entitlement reviews and investigations were conducted across the Department’s schemes in 2016. These reviews yielded €506 million in control savings for the year. Reviews and investigations of entitlements are conducted by social welfare staff, social welfare inspectors and inspectors assigned to the Special Investigations Unit and a combination of desk-based assessment of entitlements, direct enquiries with recipients of social welfare payments, and face to face interviews with customers are used to check and determine on-going entitlement. Details of savings recorded by DSP scheme are set out in table 1.

TABLE: Savings recorded by social welfare scheme 2016

Savings are calculated when a social welfare claim is reduced in value or terminated following a review or investigation initiated by my Department. Control savings do not include any element where the customer voluntarily told the Department of changes in their means or circumstances which resulted in a reduction in the rate of payment or termination of the claim. Departmental error cases are also excluded from the savings figure.

The basis of the savings calculated is scheme specific. The nature of the scheme is taken into account - in particular whether it is short-term (e.g. jobseeker’s benefit or supplementary welfare allowance) or more long-term (e.g. State Pension Contributory/Non-Contributory). Also taken into account is the length of time a person who has a claim reduced or terminated is expected to remain off a particular scheme or at the reduced rate of payment.

The Department raised €110m in overpayments in 2016 of which €41m related to customer fraud – further information on this is set out in table 2. Total expenditure on the Department’s programmes and schemes in 2016 was €19.2 billion. Overpayments as a percentage of total programmes expenditure was of the order of 0.5%.

The Deputies should also note that in 2016, approx. €82m in overpayments were recovered by my Department. This relates to overpayments that were raised in 2016 and in previous years.

TABLE: Value and number of suspected fraud overpayments recorded: 2011 to 2016

Data is not compiled in a manner that will allow for the number of suspected fraud cases to be reported by county without significant administrative effort.

As of 2 May, the number of reports received since the fraud campaign was launched is 1,434. An analysis of reports received has not yet commenced.