3,200 welfare claimants overpaid by at least €30k

More than 3,200 persons in receipt of welfare benefits have been overpaid by a minimum of €30,000 and still owe €179m back to the State, it emerged yesterday.

The Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee heard that the overall level of outstanding debt on pension, welfare and carers payments due to overpayments now stands at €501m.

Officials from the department informed committee members that in terms of larger cases, a total of €179m was owed by 3,209 people who have been overpaid by at least €30,000.

The PAC heard that on average, each of the 3,209 people involved owe a staggering €55,780.

This means, that some of those involved owe substantially more than the average figure with PAC chairman Sean Fleming suggesting some have been overpaid to the tune of €100,000. He has demanded a full breakdown of the overpayments.

The PAC heard the Department of Social Protection was forced to write off €41.5m in old debt, relating to 33,290 cases, some of which dated back to the 1980s.

A spokeswoman for the department told the Irish Examiner that in total there are 156,000 outstanding cases of overpayment.

“Two per cent of the cases have debts in excess of €30,000. Prudent debt management is an important part of the control work of the department and every effort is made to recover debt as quickly as possible,” the spokeswoman said.

PAC members heard that in 337 cases of overpayment last year, a total of €8.9m was recovered from estates of people who passed away.

Under legislation, the department can withhold up to 15% of a person’s welfare payment where an agreement on repayment can-not be reached.