Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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23. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of fraudulent claims of payments through her Department, by payment type, of those residing in the State and those residing outside the State, by county, in each of the past ten years; the number of fraudulent claims, by payment type, currently under investigation, of those residing in the State and those residing outside the State, by country; the cost to the State of all fraudulent claims and legal investigation costs for the same time period, per year, of those residing in the State and those residing outside the State, by country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37631/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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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%.

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.

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: Jobseeker's 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.

My Department carries out a range of control measures across all its schemes to prevent, detect and deter fraud. During 2023 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. 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.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.