Irregular payments a ‘significant problem’

EXCESS and irregular social welfare payments are a “significant problem” for the Department of Social Protection and need to be urgently tackled, according to the C&AG report.

The department was accountable for spending €20.5bn last year, with the report noting that the fastest increase was on social welfare for increasing numbers unemployed, while the balance in the department’s Social Insurance Fund Investment Account at the end of last year stood at €871m – a fraction of the €3bn it stood at the year before.

In the chapter on the regularity of social welfare payments, the C&AG report also looks at the problem of excess welfare payments through fraud, claimant error and departmental or administrative error.