Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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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. In 2023 the total value of overpayments - as a percentage of total scheme expenditure was approximately 0.48%.

Cases involving fraudulent or suspected fraudulent activity arise where a deciding officer is satisfied that there is sufficient evidence that a person deliberately provided false or misleading information or wilfully concealed relevant information in relation to their entitlement. The Deputy will appreciate that there is a high evidential standard to be met in such cases.

The table below sets out the number of overpayments raised and the associated value of those cases where an element of fraudulent activity was suspected in the years from 2018 to 2023. Due to changes in my Department's debt reporting environment, information in respect of earlier years is not readily available.

Year	No. of Cases	Value of Overpayments due to Fraud or Suspected Fraud
2018	7,766	€29,740,268
2019	6,963	€31,356,136
2020	5,338	€20,253,317
2021	6,290	€19,014,828
2022	5,597	€19,635,546
2023	5,097	€17,963,080

For the years 2018 to 2023, on average, the schemes with the highest number of cases where an element of fraudulent activity is suspected are: Jobseekers payments (71% of cases); Illness Benefit (7% of cases); Child Benefit (6% of cases); One Parent Family Allowance (4% of cases); Supplementary Welfare Allowance (2% of cases); State Pensions (2% of cases) and Disability Allowance (1% of cases). The remaining 7% of cases are spread across a number of schemes. During 2021 the Pandemic Unemployment Payment accounted for 7% of the overall cases for that year; for 10% of cases in 2022; and 5% of cases in 2023.

Just under 6% of the overall number of cases (approximately 2,300 of just over 37,000 cases) during the period in question were cases where the person was deemed to be absent from the State. 69% of these related to Child Benefit claims; 14% related to jobseekers’ claims; 5% related to Disability Allowance claims; and the remaining 12% of cases are spread across a number of other schemes. It is not possible to provide a breakdown by country.

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. During 2023 provisional figures indicate that just under 632,500 reviews of social welfare claims have been undertaken, resulting in savings of almost €527 million.

Preventing fraudulent claims from entering the social welfare system or carrying out review activity to identify possible fraudulent claims in payment are key requirements for my Department. Systems and processes are designed and continue to be developed to support staff in meeting these requirements. A significant number of staff are assigned to control functions, including staff in scheme areas; Control Division; Social Welfare Inspectors; staff of the Special Investigations Unit, including seconded members of An Garda Síochána; and Data Analysts.

It is not possible to disaggregate the cost of tackling social welfare fraud from the overall administration costs of the Department given that many of the tasks associated with the control and anti-fraud measures are an inherent element of the roles of social welfare officials as detailed above.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.