Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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300. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the precise legislative provision that authorises home inspections as envisaged by article 4.2 and 4.3 of the Code of Practice for Social Welfare Inspectors. [28800/22]

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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301. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the details of any circular or memo issued by her Department that authorises home inspections for social welfare inspectors. [28801/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 300 and 301 together.

Social Welfare Inspectors are appointed under the provisions of Section 250(1) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 by “The Minister, or an officer authorised in that behalf by special or general directions of the Minister...”

Under Section 250(2) of the Act “every Social Welfare Inspector shall investigate and report to the Minister on any claim...which may be referred to him or her by the Minister and may, for the purpose of the investigation and report require – (a) a claimant or a beneficiary... to give to the Social Welfare Inspector the information and to produce to him or her the documents, within the period that may be prescribed, as he or she may reasonably require.” 

When investigating a claim under Section 250(2) of the Act, a Social Welfare Inspector will use his or her judgement in considering the most appropriate location for an interview to gather the required information and documentation.  Interviews may be conducted in a customer’s home, in the Department’s offices or, for example, on a premises where employment is believed or suspected to be taking place. 

However, I should emphasise that Social Welfare Inspectors may only enter a private home if invited.  There is no statutory power of entry, unlike a workplace in line with Sections 250(3) and 250(8) – these sections of the Act detail the powers of Social Welfare Inspectors when conducting employer inspections to ensure that an employer is complying with their PRSI obligations.

If a customer does not wish to allow an Inspector to enter their private home, they may be requested by the inspector to make themselves available for interview at an alternative agreed location.  It is important to understand that Social Welfare Inspectors work across the range of the Department's activities and that home visits could be required, for instance, to facilitate a customer who for various reasons is unable to leave their home, or to review a case without which a delay in payment to the customer might occur.  Home visits may also be used to ensure a customer is resident at the address stated on their claim. 

As the Deputy will appreciate, in many cases home visits are a more suitable way of interacting with the Department’s inspectors for customers. 

Social Welfare Inspectors are amongst the Department's officials that are requested to comply with the Department's Code of Conduct for Staff Engaged in Outdoor Functions and  I have asked my officials to forward you a copy of this document.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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302. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 589 of 22 March 2022, if she will provide further information regarding the rules-based approach to reviews; when this approach was initiated in her Department; the approach that existed prior to the rules-based approach; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28802/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As part of its efforts to prevent and detect social welfare fraud, the Department has always had a process of conducting reviews of claims in payment.  Cases for review of entitlement may be selected on a random or risk-based basis, or where specific information comes to the attention of the Department, for example, through inspection of employer records, inspections of places of employment or on receipt of good citizen reports.

More broadly, reviews may consist of desk-based assessments of customer claims or face-to-face interviews with customers by trained investigators, audits of employers’ PRSI records, specialist investigations, enquiries with other state agencies, self-declarations by customers or joint operations with the Revenue Commissioners.

The rules-based approach to reviews selects a claim for review of entitlement which has regard to the eligibility rules governing a particular scheme.  The rules-based approach is effectively based on risk-based criteria such as checking with Revenue real-time data records on earnings, duration of a claim in payment, the length of time since a review was last conducted, and whether there is verified documentation associated with the claim.

This rules-based approach has been in operation since 2016 and has worked alongside rather than replaced pre-existing review measures.  Prior to the introduction of the rules-based approach a larger percentage of cases relied on random selection of cases combined with traditional approaches to case selection, such as customer requested reviews, control surveys (random selection of up to 1,000 claims on a particular scheme for review), notifications of changes in circumstances by customers and reported suspected fraud by members of the public.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.