Over €157m in welfare overpayments identified last year

The Social Welfare Offices on Thomas St, Dublin.

Over €157m in welfare overpayments were identified by the Department of Social Protection last year, but just €100m was recouped.

The annual report from the Department of Social Protection said that 506 cases were considered for prosecution last year, with the Chief State Solicitors Office progressing 487 social protection cases in the court system at the end of 2024.

Its inspectors also conducted some 85,000 investigations across all welfare schemes with a further 15,700 investigations conducted into suspected fraud.

“We continue to emphasise the obligation on customers to report changes in their circumstances,” the department said. “Even small changes in income or family circumstances can impact the rate of payment a person is entitled to receive.

“The consequences of these changes can be significant, particularly as overpayments accumulate quickly. This can result in repayments having to be made from ongoing social protection payments or earnings for long periods.” 

In 2024, the department claimed that it achieved control savings of €611m from 684,800 reviews of claims.

Concerns have been raised around these “control” savings in the past, notably during the high-profile “welfare cheats cheat us all” campaign when Leo Varadkar was social protection minister.

Doubts were raised about how such savings are calculated at the time. The department has previously stated that these control savings represent an “estimate of the value of prevented expenditure on claims over a future period”.

In other words, it says it is money that would’ve been spent into the future if it didn’t conduct these reviews.

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Separately, the Department of Social Protection said that its expenditure last year totalled €26.99bn, which included a €2.6bn package aimed at easing cost-of-living pressures on families.

In his foreword to the report, minister Dara Calleary said that last year’s budget had the largest social protection package in the history of the State.

“[It] assisted families, people with disabilities, carers and others through a mix of lump sum supports and increases to weekly payments,” he said. “These payments were timed to coincide with the winter period when daily living costs are at their highest.”

Ministers have ruled out similar one-off payments in this autumn’s Budget. This is despite grocery inflation far outstripping general inflation while consumers still face high energy bills.