Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 390 to 392, inclusive, together.

Overpayments of social welfare entitlements can occur where a person provides false or misleading information in their application or through error on the part of either the claimant or the Department. Persons 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.

My Department carries out a range of control measures across all its schemes to prevent, detect and deter fraud. These includes checks both at the award stage and subsequent reviews. Control reviews across all schemes include data matching with Departmental and other records; seeking confirmation of ongoing eligibility from claimants; and home visits by Social Welfare Inspectors where this is considered necessary. To the end of October 2023, provisional figures indicate that just over 535,000 reviews of social welfare claims have been undertaken this year, resulting in savings of just over €463 million.

Means tested payments have qualifying conditions and income levels must be below a certain level, depending on the scheme. Where a customer is found to have exceeded those limits, a Deciding Officer will make a revised decision based on the means discovered and will raise an overpayment for the period that the customer should not have been in receipt of the payment.

Where an overpayment occurs, the Department seeks to recover the full value by deducting up to 15% of the personal rate from on-going Social Welfare payments or requires direct payments to be made where a social welfare payment is no longer in place. Where a customer is in employment and does not engage in agreeing a repayment plan, the Department will consider making an attachment of earnings order. The Department will work with the customer and consider personal circumstances in determining a repayment plan.

Where my Department encounters serious fraud cases, it is policy to ensure that such cases come before the courts. While the Department can take such prosecutions under social welfare legislation, the more serious cases of suspected fraud are generally referred to the Gardaí for prosecution under criminal justice legislation.

Currently there are 3,627 customers repaying overpayments in excess of €100,000, with 984 customers repaying overpayments of between €50,000 and €99,999 and a further 3,627 customer repaying overpayments of between €20,000 and €49,999.

Social welfare legislation provides that the personal representative of a deceased person who, at any time, received a means-tested social assistance payment from the Department is obliged to give notice to the Department of their intention to distribute the deceased's estate and to provide a schedule of the assets of the estate. The personal representative is requested not to distribute the estate, until they receive formal clearance from the Department. Where there is an outstanding overpayment or a new overpayment is raised based on the failure of the deceased to report an increase in their means, my Department will pursue the overpayment from the estate of the customer.

The number of claims for overpayments being currently pursued by my Department from the estates of deceased customers is 1,629 with an outstanding value of €10.4m.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.