Savings from welfare fraud crackdown exceed targets

Savings from a social welfare fraud crackdown have “exceeded” the annual target.

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton made the disclosure yesterday, ahead of the publication next week of new figures on welfare fraud elimination measures.

She said efforts by her department to boost savings in certain areas have been successful. The comments came as she launched a new Partial Capacity Benefit for people with disabilities who want to return to work for a variable pay rate.

Applications will be taken from clients from next Monday. In addition, former Fás employment services for people with disabilities, now operating under the department, have been renamed EmployAbility and allow those volunteering for work to avail of a range of supports, including a jobs coach.

On social welfare fraud, the minister said: “We will be publishing those figures next week and, yes, the figures have achieved the targets and if I can remember correctly they have exceeded them.”

She described, as “significant”, savings across targeted areas.

On measures to reduce the number of people on the Live Register, the minister said a new programme called Pathways will be launched shortly and was aimed at getting people back to work.

“Ultimately the target the government has set itself over a period of time is 100,000 [jobs] through a variety of mechanisms,” she said.

The department’s chief medical officer Dr Clement Leech said people with a disability found it more difficult to get back into work. Someone with back pain out of work for six months has just a 50% chance of getting back into the labour force, he said.

Efforts to tackle long- term unemployment among people with a disability include the Renaissance Project, which started in 2004 with people suffering from back pain. Initial results showed 78% of participants returned to work and the scheme now deals with 40,000 clients and is being extended to people with mental health and common health issues.

Mr Leech said, in some cases where a departmental medical assessment found that a disability benefit recipient was actually able to work, it did not mean the original GP diagnosis was wrong or that the claimant had been fraudulent.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean that the GP is wrong in what he or she is doing, it just means as a control mechanism it would be administratively unwise to devolve that kind of control,” he said.

At yesterday’s launch of the rebranded EmployAbility programme in Dublin’s Ballymun, Yvonne Browne of Work4U said, availing of the voluntary scheme allowed people with disabilities to get back to work and develop their skills, while at the same time saving money and boosting manpower for the employers concerned.

There are 24 EmployAbility centres dotted around the country, from West Cork to Sligo.

* Information is available at www.welfare.ie.