SF: Social welfare overpay amnesty will save money and protect recipients

The Government should offer a social welfare “amnesty” so that recipients can report overpayments without fear of penalty, Sinn Féin has said.

Sinn Féin social protection spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh said yesterday that while many newspaper headlines referred to social welfare “fraud”, the reality was that the majority of overpayments were caused by genuine error.

As a result, he said, an amnesty should be offered so those who got overpayments could tell the Department of Social Protection and have their benefits corrected without penalties.