More than €46m in welfare payments recouped

The most common type of suspected fraud reports relate to people working and claiming a social welfare payment. Picture: Denis Minihane

More than €46m in social welfare payments has been recouped so far this year.

The Department of Social Protection has received 4,600 reports of suspected social welfare fraud from members of the public, with around 75% of these being referred for further review.

By far the most common type of suspected fraud reports relate to people working and claiming a social welfare payment, which accounted for around 45% of complaints made by members of the public.

People in breach of the qualifying conditions of a scheme accounted for 15% of complaints; 10% of reports related to people living outside of the State, while non-disclosure of means was the reason cited for the final 10% of public reports.

Between January and the end of July, the department said it has carried out almost 300,000 control reviews across its schemes.

A spokesperson said the department can take prosecutions under social welfare legislation, where cases of identity fraud or multiple claiming occur, these are generally referred to the gardaí for prosecution under criminal justice legislation. Data on criminal justice cases is a matter for the Department of Justice.

The department has several ongoing prosecutions in the courts system. To the end of July, 36 cases had been finalised in court, with convictions secured in 30 of these cases.

The value of overpayments recovered by the department to the end of July 2022 was €46.4m.

The spokesperson said, however, that it does not comment in relation to ongoing investigations or prosecutions.

Meanwhile, the department is also asking people who wrongly received the Pandemic Unemployment Payments (Pup) to return the payment.

Up to the end of July around €12.6m in Pup supports had been repaid, with with approximately 10,700 of these over-payments having been repaid in full.

However, some €33.9m had still not been paid back by those who were overpaid by the end of July.

These over-payments were made for a number of reasons during the pandemic and including people who failed to notify the Department of Social Protection when they returned to work. However, others may relate to fraudulent claims.