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.