Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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1808. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the proactive measures in place to ensure that there is not a build-up of debt owed to her Department by persons who are in receipt of a social welfare payment but who may not have a full entitlement to the payment in view of the fact that her Department regularly contacts persons regarding overpayments that have occurred over a period of years as a result of possible undeclared income; if there can be a more timely exchange of information between the Revenue Commissioners and her Department to ensure these matters are picked up earlier to prevent large debts building up and the consequent issue of the person having to deal with the overpayments; if there is a protocol in place for the earlier exchange of information between the two organisations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35174/19]

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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1809. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the breakdown of debts owed to her Department of over €10,000; the number and amount due in respect of each scheme category; the proactive measures in place to prevent the build-up of such debts in respect of schemes in which the highest overpayments tend to arise; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35175/19]

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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1810. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the details of the debt owed in respect of debts of over €10,000 for each scheme; the years in which the debt arose; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35176/19]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1808 to 1810, inclusive, together.

Overpayments of social welfare assistance and benefit payments arise as a consequence of decisions made under the relevant sections of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2005 (as amended). Where an overpayment is raised, the Department is obligated to make every effort to recover sums overpaid.

At the end of July 2019, the Department had almost 11,700 individual customer debts valued at over €10,000, with a total outstanding value of €326.6 million. A breakdown of the debts by scheme and by year raised are set out in tables 1 and 2 respectively below.

My Department has a number of measures in place to detect non-compliance in claims at the earliest possible opportunity, thereby preventing the build-up of large debts by customers of the Department. These measures include:

- reviewing claims on an annual basis across all social welfare schemes and programmes to ensure continued eligibility of customers. Claims are reviewed using a risk-based approach, in addition to random sample checks and specialist investigations. Reviews looking at the medical conditionality underpinning certain schemes are also undertaken;

- verification and validation of information provided by customers in support of an application for payment, including the requirement for original documentation and cross-checking with information already held by my Department and other public bodies;

- data-matching with other Government Departments and public bodies to identify non-compliant claims;

- the use of predictive modelling to detect non-compliant cases and improve non-compliance processes and controls; and

- conducting control surveys of various schemes on an annual basis to identify the risks and address any weaknesses within schemes.

As outlined above, for the past number of years, for control purposes, my Department has been actively engaged in data-matching with other Government Departments and public bodies. The aim of this work is to detect non-compliance as quickly as possible, thereby minimising the build-up of debts to my Department. To this end, there is an extensive legal structure to support the sharing of data for the purpose of controlling the entitlement and payment of benefits.

Notifications received by my Department from the Revenue Commissioners when persons commence employment form one element of this data matching. This information is used to identify, at the earlier opportunity, customers who may be claiming payments from my Department beyond their period of entitlement.

In previous years, these notifications depended on the periodic returns by employers to Revenue. Since the advent of real-time Revenue data earlier this year, this data is now received in a much timelier manner which allows for potential overpayments to be identified and stopped much more quickly.

The legislative provisions that allow for the specific sharing of data with other bodies are contained in section 261 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2006. In exercising these functions, the Department also operates in accordance with the relevant data protection legislation.

A Data Sharing Agreement is in place between my Department and Revenue to govern the transfer of data between the two organisations, in strict accordance with GDPR.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.