The Government has been criticised for plans to use taxpayers money to monitor our own social media.

We’ve become a welfare nation “overly dependent” on state payments compared to other countries, newly published Government papers have warned.

We’ve become a welfare nation “overly dependent” on state payments compared to other countries, newly published Government papers have warned.

A branch manager of a Department of Social Protection office earmarked for destruction to make way for a bridge left a council headquarters in tears yesterday.

Thousands of lone parents could benefit from closing off a loophole which allows estranged partners to avoid paying maintenance payments for their children.

Almost €250,000 has been paid out so far this year to keep eight homeless families in hotel accommodation in Cork.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s controversial ‘welfare cheats cheat us all’ campaign was a mistake, the new head of the Department of Social Protection has said.

The head of the Department of Social Protection is emphasising that women who have been subjected to domestic abuse do not have to make attempts to contact their attacker in order to receive the lone parent’s allowance.

The Government’s “welfare cheats cheat us all” campaign ignored the fact the majority of its claimed 2% welfare fraud rate was due to Department of Social Protection errors and not those of recipients.

Nearly €43m of the €47.4m budget for back-to-school payments for families has been spent by the Department of Social Protection.

Leo Varadkar’s decision to increase back-to-school payments was made just days before he left the Department of Social Protection to become Taoiseach.

There are nearly 58,000 workers being subsidised by the State to the tune of €422m as their incomes are too low to survive on, according to figures from the Department of Social Protection.

Figures show that two-thirds of applications for Disability Allowance that were initially rejected were later granted on appeal.

Anti-fraud measures saved the State €510m last year, with the Department of Social Protection estimating as much as €110m was overpaid, of which €85m was recovered, writes Noel Baker.

Update 5.15pm: The Department of Social Protection has confirmed that Bank of Ireland and AIB customers who did not receive their social payments today - have now had their accounts credited.

The Department of Social Protection has said it is organising emergency measures for customers whose payments will be disrupted by the postal strike.

Workers at the Department of Social Protection have complained some of their colleagues look "scruffy", and that a lack of an appropriate dress code creates an unprofessional image.

The Department of Social Protection has reviewed rent supplements and decided not to increase them.

In relation to the letter in the Irish Examiner (February 18), which stated that homeless people must produce receipts for two nights’ hostel accommodation in order to get welfare payments, this is not correct.

A senior official at the Department of Social Protection has admitted the speed of changes made to age limits for eligibility to the State pension was “not desirable”.

The €208,000 spend by the Department of Social Protection on new signage for its Intreo centres came under fire yesterday.