Welfare fraud targeted for savings of €41m

Those receiving illness and jobseekers’ welfare payments are to be targeted for fraud control measures after the Government outlined steps to save an extra €41m this year.

New figures show that the Department of Social Protection exceeded its target for fraud control last year by €14m, helped by about 1m reviews of individual social welfare claims being carried out, also outstripping the target figure.

The figures also show that only a handful of areas did not exceed their savings target last year, including illness benefit, jobseekers’ payments, and the supplementary welfare allowance.

With the department now aiming to save €710m this year, two areas have been prioritised for increased savings: Illness, where the department hopes to save €122m versus the €84m saved last year, and jobseekers, where €119m is the savings target and which accounted for €91m in 2012.

The categories being targeted for the most savings are one parent family payments at €165m and pensions at €157m, although in both cases the targets are below those achieved last year.

Those figures outline money that would otherwise have been spent had fraud not been detected, while the amount of money recouped by the department stood at €50m in 2011, with a similar figure expected for last year.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One yesterday, minister Joan Burton said fraud investigations and control measures had resulted in “quite significant savings” but warned that more would be done.

“We have problems that are on the rise,” she said.

“We have people, for instance, taking multiple identities and making different claims in different parts of the country.”

The minister also said that her department’s IT systems were being modernised to concentrate on the areas most at risk of fraud.

She said she agreed with the view that the increase in projected savings through fraud control measures should mean no cuts were required to child benefit, but said the Department of Finance did not necessarily agree.

Despite claims in the past that GPs were readily providing illness certification for welfare claimants later found by the department not to fulfil criteria for payment, yesterday the Irish Medical Organisation said there were no issues.

An IMO spokesman said the group’s GP committee regularly met with officials from the department and issues of certification had never been raised.

The figures published yesterday also showed the department’s dedicated fraud helpline received 28,000 reports, of which more than 18,000 led to further investigation, with the majority linked to allegations of people working and claiming social welfare payments.

- www.welfare.ie