Almost 1,000 asylum seekers caught cheating welfare system

A total of 878 asylum seekers were discovered cheating the state’s welfare system in the past two years, it emerged tonight.

The Justice Department told the Public Accounts Committee that over six million euro in benefits was recouped during that period.

The department’s secretary general Sean Aylward said the €6.1m was recovered between August 2004 and May 31 last when 878 foreign nationals were found to be unlawfully resident in the state and illegally claiming benefits.

The Justice Department was backed by specialised officials from the Social & Family Affairs Department in the welfare clampdown.

Mr Aylward said: “These individuals were all making fraudulent claims. These spectacular savings were realised through the co-operation of everybody concerned.”

The fraud took place across rental allowances, unemployment benefits, one-parent allowances, child benefit and disability payments.

The PAC was discussing the Comptroller & Auditor General’s study of the 2004 annual report of the Justice Department.

Mr Aylward added: “We’re talking about people with multiple identities with multiple passports and other forms of ID. There was massive evasion there.”

The senior civil servant said Irish immigration authorities and the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) continued to track the movement of unlawfully-resident individuals.

“People get into the country and claim what benefits they can from the state’s welfare system,” he explained.

The committee heard that Irish authorities were closely sharing information on asylum seekers with their counterparts in the UK and other EU member states.

Mr Aylward said he believed that the vast majority of asylum seekers who evaded deportation later left the country.

“When people are on the point of deportation, they move off the radar and go to another country,” he explained.