194 dole-cheat cases remain open

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has confirmed that her department has 194 cases still open in an initiative targeting dole cheats which has generated €21m for the State to date.

In a written Dáil response to Fianna Fail’s Michael McGrath, Ms Burton confirmed that since October 2012, full recoveries have been made on 503 cases investigated under Operation Dirt (Deposit Interest Retention Tax).

She said a further 194 cases are in varying degrees of the recovery process. Ms Burton confirmed that her department has recovered more than €140,000 from one dole cheat. This was the highest individual amount recovered, with the 10 highest amounts ranging down from that figure to €68,500.

The minister confirmed that last year her department recovered €8.4m from dole cheats as part of Operation Dirt.

This followed her department recovering €10.3m through Operation Dirt in 2013.

The department has recovered the amounts through a collaborative project with the Revenue Commissioners focusing on people who claim means-tested social-welfare payments, but don’t declare large deposits in bank accounts, on which Dirt must be paid.

In one instance at Ennis District Court earlier this year, Judge Patrick Durcan likened a dole cheat who had put away a €98,000 cash pile before claiming dole payments of €80,410 to “a little squirrel”.

Clare handyman Patrick Cass of Moygalla, Sixmilebridge, received the €80,410 in dole payments between 2009 and 2013 as a result of concealing from the State that he had his life savings of €98,000 in the bank and instead claiming he had only €5,000.

Mr Cass has paid back over €54,840 of the €80,410 that he claimed and continues to pay back €60 per week.

On a recent constituency visit to Clare, Ms Burton said that the vast majority of people who receive social-welfare payments are honest, but she added: “There is a problem with a small number of people and I am determined that we have a zero-tolerance approach to fraud.”

In response yesterday, Deputy McGrath said: “The amounts of money involved in these cases are extraordinary and clearly demonstrate that many people on means-tested social-welfare payments had large sums in the bank.

He added: “Ultimately, means-tested social-welfare payments exist as a safety net for people who do not have enough personal resources to survive on and any abuse of the system is not acceptable.

“It is important to state, however, that fraud is not widespread and the overwhelming majority of welfare claims are legitimately made.”

In her Dáil response, Ms Burton said: “Data sharing by the department is viewed as an efficient and effective mechanism to target control-related activity. It is an important preventative and detection control measure.

“The department continues to examine its control practices and to introduce new measures to improve controls, wherever possible. The aim is to reduce or eliminate over-payments arising from customers receiving payments when they are no longer eligible in order to ensure that scarce resources are available to those who need them most.”