Hanafin defends stance on €2bn fraud

SOCIAL Welfare Minister Mary Hanafin has defended her department’s anti-fraud measures amid reports they are costing taxpayers €2 billion.

She said some programmes were more prone to bogus claims than others and it was wrong to assume 10% of all payments were to people who should not have been entitled to them.

“Within schemes, some categories of claimants can be a much higher risk than others and when these are identified the department moves to address the issue.