€11.1m debt from social welfare overpayments is written off

Outstanding debt owed due to overpayments stood at €495m at the end of 2022.

The Department of Social Protection wrote off €11.1m worth of debt owed from welfare overpayments last year, with the outstanding debt owed due to overpayments standing at €495m at the end of 2022.

In one case, the department sought to recover an overpayment of €900 in respect of a deceased person, which accrued from the date of their death to the date the department was informed. While it was successful in recovering this debt, it did not seek to recover a debt already owed while the person was alive, totalling over €10,000, which was eventually written off in 2022.