Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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1827. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of social protection payment recipients that have a public services card in 2016 and in 2017; the number of social protection payment recipients with no public services card in 2016 and in 2017; the number of social protection payments that have been withheld due to the lack of a public services card in 2016 and 2017; the total amount of those withheld payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37550/17]

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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1839. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a person not issued with a public services card but has proven their identity by other means such as a driving licence, passport or passport card can receive a social protection payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37751/17]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1840. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the concerns of families and loved ones of older persons that are in receipt of welfare payments such as pensions caused by the requirement that they hold a public services card in order to access payments in view or the fact that many recipients are not in a position to collect or easily supply the details needed for the I.D. due to the fact that they reside in nursing facilities or are ill; if her attention has been further drawn to similar concerns that the requirement will lead to some older persons losing their entitlements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37759/17]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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1842. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if it is a legal requirement for a person to hold a public services card in order to receive social protection payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37767/17]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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1847. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection further to her public statement, the legal basis within the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, that makes a public service card mandatory in order to interact with her department; if a public service card is necessary for all interactions with her department; the reason the operational guidelines for both job seeker's benefit and allowance allow for other forms of identification, such as a passport, for Irish citizens. [37875/17]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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1868. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she or bodies and agencies under the remit of her department plans to make services or payments dependant on the mandatory use and production of the public services card; if so, the services and payments which will now be dependant on the mandatory use of the public services card; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38147/17]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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1871. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons that have been denied a social welfare payment for not being in possession of a public services card or for not having registered for a public services card; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38191/17]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1896. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will supply the precise piece of legislation that underpins the mandatory nature of the public services card in view of the fact that the card is a mandatory requirement; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38550/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1827, 1839, 1840, 1842, 1847, 1868, 1871 and 1896 together.

In 2005, the Government agreed a standard for establishing and verifying an individual’s identity for the purposes of accessing public services. This standard is known as the Standard Authentication Framework Environment – or “SAFE”.

The SAFE standard has four levels:

- Safe 0= No assurance of identity

- Safe 1= Balance of probabilities (the minimum authentication level for the allocation of a PPS Number)

- Safe 2= Substantial assurance (the minimum authentication level for issuing a Public Services Card)

- Safe 3= Beyond reasonable doubt

The Department operates a number of methods to SAFE 2 register a person. The usual method involves a combination of all of the following –

-a face-to-face meeting,

-the collection and verification of the person’s Public Service Identity (PSI) data set,

-the examination/validation/verification of at least two documents supporting identity, and

-photo capture and matching.

As part of the verification process the person’s photo is run through software to check against other photos that have already been taken during other SAFE 2 registrations. This is to detect and/or prevent duplicate registrations.

Until very recently, the application process for an Irish passport or a Driver’s License did not comply with the SAFE 2 standard of identity verification. Therefore, taken individually, neither a passport, nor a driver’s license, nor a birth certificate is enough to validate an identity to SAFE Level 2. For this reason, in itself, a passport or a driver’s license is not currently acceptable as the required standard of identity verification for access to benefits from my Department. However, in combination and with the other data and processes detailed above they can be used to verify an identity to the SAFE 2 standard.

Once a person completes a SAFE 2 registration they are issued with a Public Services Card (PSC) as a physical token that proves they have had their identity verified to the SAFE 2 standard. Additionally, a person may be issued with a verified MyGovID account, which is a secure online account for accessing public services digitally, and again proves in the online environment that the person has had their identity verified to the SAFE 2 standard. The PSC and MyGovID, in turn, enable individuals gain access to high value and personalised public services, in person and electronically, more efficiently and with a minimum of duplication of effort, while preserving privacy and security. In the case of services provided by my Department, the PSC is being used to replace the Social Services Card and paper Free Travel pass and MyGovID is being used to provide access to an increasing number of welfare services online atwww.mywelfare.ie.

Accordingly, SAFE Level 2 registration allows a person to verify their identity once for public service purposes because it is to a substantial level of assurance. Consequently, it eliminates the need for a person to repeatedly register their identity information when accessing public services. It makes it more difficult for someone else to claim to be a person and so helps to eliminate “identity theft” and fraudulent access to someone else’s data.

The primary legislative provisions for SAFE registration and identity verification are set out in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act, 2005 (as amended) as follows – -

-Sections 262 and 263B provide for the verification of identity for issuance and use of a PPS Number.

-Sections 263, 263A and 263B provide for the verification of identity for issuance, use and cancellation of a PSC.

-Section 241 provides that a person must satisfy the Minister to his/her identity when making a new claim.

-Section 247C provides that an existing claimant must satisfy the Minister to his/her identity and provides for disqualification where an existing claimant fails to so do.

In other words, the legislation requires a person to satisfy the Minister as to their identity and allows for disallowance or disqualification from receipt of a benefit in the event that it is not done. It is not possible for a claimant to satisfy the Minister as to his or her identity without registering to SAFE 2. Given that my Department spends over €19bn p.a. on supports and services, we need to be sure that people who access these services are the people who are entitled to receive them and that they don’t access them multiple times under different identities. Accordingly, it is reasonable to ask people to verify their identity to a substantial level of assurance.

The Department makes it clear to customers in receipt of social welfare payments or Free Travel entitlements that they do need to complete a SAFE 2 registration to access, or continue to access, payments and entitlements. In the main, customers are invited to a scheduled registration appointment, completion of which results in the issue of a PSC by post. The Department also issues reminder letters to customers, as required. Customers may also book a different time/date to suit them, either online via www.mywelfare.ie, by contacting the Department’s offices, or by walking in to ask for the next available appointment. The process takes about 15 minutes to complete, once all required documents are presented. While the jobseeker’s benefit and jobseeker’s allowance operational guidelines set out the documents required to provide ‘evidence’ of identity when a person makes a claim, they also make it clear that a person must complete the SAFE 2 registration by getting a PSC to fully verify their identity.

While the default SAFE 2 registration method is ‘face-to-face’ (as set out at Sections 263B, 241 and 247C (3) of the Act), the Department can and does make other arrangements with customers, to elevate their identity verification to the SAFE 2 standard. In line with SAFE principles to build on already existing infrastructure (and subject to appropriate risk analysis, legally based data sharing and the consent of the individual), upgrading existing customers to SAFE Level 2 is undertaken as much as possible using relevant data already held by the State (e.g. Driver’s License, Passport Office, All-Ireland Free Travel Scheme) combined with a number of other items and processes. These are customers whom the Department has been dealing with for some time and who, by virtue of their circumstances, are unlikely to present a high risk of identity fraud. Pensioners who have had a passport photograph verified in a face-to-face interaction at passport application and Free Travel clients who personally collect their primary Social Welfare payments at a Post Office have availed of processes whereby whatever other information is required to register them to SAFE 2 is provided without them having to attend a Department office centre for a face-to-face interview. In addition, certain persons who have renewed their Driver’s Licence since March 2014 and in doing so have provided the Road Safety Authority with personal information and a photograph are also being offered the opportunity to complete the SAFE 2 registration process without attending a Department office. Each of these approaches is further strengthened in that all photographs are subjected to facial image matching against previously held photographs. Additionally, the Department operates a mobile registration solution to cater for those persons incapable (for whatever reason) of attending a Department office. Although this approach works best in congregated environments, individual registrations (for example at a person’s residence) can be undertaken in exceptional circumstances.

The Department is in the process of completing SAFE 2 registration of its entire existing customer base. As its customer base is not static, this is an ongoing process. As at 31 December 2016, the number of Departmental customers in payment with a PSC was 1.43M while the number of customers in payment without one was 0.56M. The equivalent numbers as at 31 July 2017 were 1.55M and 0.45M, respectively. These figures are at given points in time and reflect the facts that the Department is in a roll-out phase and that there is considerable movement in the Department’s customer base. These figures should not be confused with the total number of PSCs issued to date which stands at approx. 2.8 million.

Registration of the balance of the Department’s customers is being progressed, with due regard to customers who are unable to attend in person due to challenges relating to age, mobility or disability. In this regard, customers who had not yet registered for a PSC for Free travel purposes, including many pensioners, were written to earlier this year to ask if they could attend in person to register. Over 32,000 such customers have already received their PSC for Free Travel as a result of this exercise and SAFE appointments at the Department’s offices are in hand for some 20,000 more who indicated they could attend. About 10,000 customers, who responded to say they are not able to attend in person, will be facilitated by other means including, where appropriate, postal registration methods or mobile SAFE registration facilities at group and community settings. In this context, I want to make it clear that customers who face bona fide challenges to in-person attendance will not be disadvantaged, in terms of access to payments and/or availing of Free Travel entitlements.

The Department does not collect data on the number of individuals who currently, or who, at any point in time, have had a payment stopped by reason of failing to complete the SAFE 2 registration process. This data is fluid in nature. For example, a considerable number of customers who have a payment or entitlement suspended or stopped subsequently decide to complete the SAFE2 process and have their payment or entitlement reinstated. It should be noted that of the remainder, a considerable portion do not make any contact with the Department. The decision to stop a payment is never made lightly. However, where a customer does not “satisfy the Minister in relation to identity” as per the legislative requirements, a payment can be disqualified. In advance of any such disqualification, the Department makes every effort to engage with the customer to explain the legislative basis for the SAFE 2 registration process and the consequences of potential disqualification. Where a payment has been disqualified and the customer subsequently successfully completes the SAFE 2 registration process, their payment will be reinstated by the Department (assuming they continue to meet all qualifying criteria for that payment).

In other parts of the public service, many of their services have been provided to people who had their identity verified only to the SAFE Level 1 standard. Since the introduction of SAFE Level 2 registration in 2011, more services are now moving to identity verification at this level to ensure a substantial level of assurance of identity. While it is a matter for each public service provider to determine the appropriate level of identity verification required for each of its services, SAFE Level 2 registration benefits them by removing the need for them to engage in costly and inefficient identity registration processes, by reducing the number of people fraudulently claiming to be someone else, and by facilitating the provision of high-value and personalised public services online.

I hope this clarifies the matter for Deputies.