Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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406. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the total amount of overpayments of contributory and non-contributory old age pension paid to persons following their death in each of the years from 2010 to 2021 and to date in 2022; the total amount that has been written off in each of those years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [58901/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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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). Customers who have been overpaid social welfare have a liability to refund the overpayment as they have been in receipt of a payment to which they were not entitled. Some payments can issue where a customer is deceased and there has been a delay in notifying the Department.

Where an overpayment is raised, the Department is required to make every effort to recover the amount overpaid.

In 2021, there were over 580,000 individuals in receipt of State Pension Contributory or Non-Contributory. Data in respect of the number of overpayments where pension was paid to persons following their death since 2018 to date is set out in the table below. Due to technical limitations on the debt reporting environment, the Department is unable to provide similar data for earlier years. Cases written off in a particular year may have arisen in an earlier year.

Table: Paid after Death Overpayments 2018 to End October 2022

I trust that this clarifies matters for the Deputy.