101 ‘welfare tourism’ cases see €1.3m saved

An update from the Special Investigations Unit of the Department of Social Protection has revealed that since June last year, 101 ‘welfare tourism’ cases have been detected at airports, resulting in savings of €1.32m.

Another €2.57m was saved following 2,454 reviews of social assistance payments, which also found 236 instances where the recipient was not resident in the country.

The update revealed that drivers who were working and claiming benefits were also targeted for multi-agency vehicle checkpoints. In one case, the driver of a heavy goods vehicle had been claiming the invalidity pension for the previous four years, while another such driver was resident in Clare and claiming benefits, but working for a haulage firm in Meath.

In Cork City, ‘Operation Ear To The Ground 2’ found that the main reason for termination of the one-parent family payment was cohabitation. In total, 33 recipients of the payment were targeted. The report states: “The €1.5m savings includes substantial overpayments where customers have admitted cohabitation for a number of years and have agreed to repay the overpayment.

“Fourteen of the 33 have had no recourse to another social welfare payment as their partners had substantial earnings while the remaining 20 moved to a more appropriate lower payment, usually qualified adult on their partner’s jobseeker’s allowance.”

The Special Investigations Unit detected overpayments in fraud cases to the value of €423,000, while 72 cases of identity fraud have been uncovered so far this year, resulting in savings of over €1m.

It had previously emerged that 55 golf caddies who had also been claiming benefits had been snared by inspectors following a swoop earlier this year.

The investigations unit report also outlined the extent to which facial recognition software and the public service card is rumbling other cases of welfare fraud.

Ten cases in which people were using multiple identities were uncovered in this way, eight of which were referred to the DPP.

A total of 24 claims were involved, including one case involving six bogus identities and 12 claims equating to fraud worth €450,000. In another case, €200,000 had been defrauded and a couple was charged but fled the country.