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.

The Department has a central debt unit of 28 staff that deal with recovery of overpayments from customers who are not in receipt of a social welfare payment. This unit is made up of 1 Assistant Principal, 3 Higher Executive Officers, 10.5 Executive Officers and 13.5 Clerical officers.

Customers, with overpayments, who are in receipt of a social welfare payment, are dealt with by the relevant scheme area or INTREO office, depending on the scheme or locality. All staff in these scheme areas and INTREO offices may be involved in recovery of overpayments.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.