Almost €85m in social welfare overpayments have not been recouped

Figures provided by the Department of Social Protection show that in 2023, there were 87,732 overpayments made with a total value of €115.8m. In 2024, this rose to 115,943 overpayments worth €157.7m.

Some €85m in social welfare overpayments made over the last two years have not been recouped.

However, Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly has questioned how the Department of Social Protection is classifying overpayments, suggesting that those listed as “customer error” should be caught by social welfare officers.

The figures come ahead of the department’s appearance at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday.

The figures provided to Mr Farrelly by the Department of Social Protection show that in 2023, there were 87,732 overpayments made with a total value of €115.8m. In 2024, this rose to 115,943 overpayments worth €157.7m.

However, not all of this money was recouped, with recoveries of €87.4m and €101m in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

This means that nearly €56.5m was lost last year, with another €28.4m not recouped the previous year, bringing the total amount of money not recovered to €84.9m.

The department noted that recoveries may include overpayments raised in other years.

Overpayments linked to suspected fraud

The number of overpayments linked to suspected fraud stood at 15% in both 2023 and 2024 and was valued at €18m and €24.3m in each year, respectively.

There were 5,097 fraud cases in 2023, with €13.7m recovered. This increased to 6,007 cases in 2024, when €14.7m was recouped.

However, there were just 175 suspected social welfare fraud cases referred to the Chief State Solicitor’s Office over the two-year period.

The most common reason for social welfare overpayments, however, was due to “customer error”. This accounted for 61% of overpayments worth €70.3m in 2023, and 68% of overpayments worth €106.6m in 2024.

The number of overpayments linked to “official error”, meanwhile, stood at just 1% last year and was valued at €2.2m.

This was down from 2023, when official error accounted for 3% of overpayments worth €3.4m.

Mr Farrelly told the Irish Examiner that he will be quizzing the Department of Social Protection at Thursday morning’s PAC meeting about the number of overpayments linked to “customer error” and questioned why the mistakes were not being caught by social welfare officers who are assessing applications.

Difference between customer error and official error

“What's the difference between customer error and official error?” he asked.

“If you or I apply for something and we're told we're eligible for it, whose is the error with? The official error is only at 1%.

“If I'm intentionally doing something wrong, then it's suspected fraud, I would imagine.

“If I'm unintentionally doing something wrong, then surely the official is in place to check that and make sure.

“That’s certainly something I'm going to be probing, because the fraud cases themselves are in the thousands and increasing, an extra thousand between 2023 and 2024. We're talking serious sums of money here.

“But if we're going to learn from this and try to really minimise this, that starts with accountability."

Mr Farrelly argued that there does not appear to be “any sort of comprehensive effort” to recoup overpayments, as he said he is concerned by how few fraud cases are being referred to the Chief State Solicitor’s Office for further interrogation.