€11m in Job Seekers welfare fraud recovered

The State recovered money last year from suspected welfare cheats who had defrauded theSstate in bogus entitlements concerning dead and blind people but the most money was recovered from Job Seekers Allowance.

According to the Minister for Social Protection, Leo Varadkar his department last year recovered suspected fraud overpayments of €11,332 concerning blind persons’ pensions.

Mr Varadkar also confirmed that suspected bogus payments concerning the department’s death benefit totalling €1,438 were recovered while an additional €390 in a suspected fraudulent bereavement grant was also recovered last year.