Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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379. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason the special investigation unit in her Department is not allowed to stop the fraudulent payments being claimed by persons who are working and wrongly in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment. [41253/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU) has, throughout the period of the pandemic, investigated suspected fraudulent pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) claims and the focus of that work is continuing.  My Department’s investigation of suspected fraudulent PUP claims includes comparing data on PUP payments against Revenue real-time earning data in order to identify claimants who may be working.  The implication in the Deputy’s question that suspected fraudulent claims are not being stopped – which has to be subject, of course, to clear evidence that a claimant is working – is incorrect.  With specific reference to PUP claims my Department’s officers, including the SIU supported by An Garda Síochána, have reviewed over 70,000 claims giving rise to savings of about €94 million. In a number of cases, prosecutions are being pursued.

This work is ongoing along with other investigations by the SIU, including for example, the investigation of suspected identity frauds in conjunction with An Garda Síochána. 

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.