‘Difficult’ to meet benefit increase expectations

The Social Protection Minister has been told by her department that it will be “difficult to meet” expectations of further benefit increases because of financial constraints and the impact of rising pensions costs.

The warning is included in a briefing note to Regina Doherty, which also shows the recent “welfare cheats” campaign led to an increase of 60% in the number of reports linked to alleged welfare fraud to the end of May, compared with the same period last year. The campaign, spearheaded by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar before his election as Fine Gael leader, was criticised by the opposition.

The briefing note shows the campaign, which cost almost €166,000, resulted in 3,681 reports being received by the department to May 29 this year, compared with the comparable period last year in which 2,298 reports were received.