More than 200 people have been arrested for trying to defraud the social welfare system in the past three years by using bogus identity cards, passports and birth certificates, it has emerged.
A specialist unit in the Department of Social and Family Affairs has detected a marked increase in identity fraud being used to try to claim a range of welfare benefits.
Since 2004, the department's client identity service control unit, which monitors identity fraud issues, uncovered about 1,000 cases of bogus identity papers being used to try to claim welfare, leading to the arrest of 227 people. The department does not have a record of how many of these went on to be prosecuted by law enforcement authorities.
While officials were successful in detecting this type of fraud, it has previously been estimated that the State may be losing anything between €25 million and €50 million as a result of identity fraud.
A breakdown of the nationality of people involved in identity fraud who came to the attention of officials in recent years is not available. However, an analysis was conducted in 2004 of the fraudulent cases. Of 324 bogus cases, 303 were from foreign-nationals who presented false or forged documents purporting to be from EU states, 20 were other non-national documents and one involved Irish documentation.
A special departmental report into identity fraud three years ago found that there was an organised network which involved a "huge trade" in genuine documents, such as P45s, tax-credit certificates and social services cards, in order to obtain PPS numbers.
It warned that growing evidence of identity fraud could lead to a "lack of confidence" in the PPS system, which is used to help open bank accounts and obtain credit cards.
The Southern Region ID Project report, completed at the end of 2004, warned: "Many other cases of ID fraud have been encountered and will continue. The influx of new immigrants from the new EU members states has brought new problems and there is a need for constant updates. As a department our first line of defence in this area is at the PPS number issue stage."
The report called for a multi-agency taskforce to deal with identity fraud and warned that many cases of fraud reached no conclusion as the individuals involved "simply disappeared". At the time, the Comptroller and Auditor General called for a series of measures to improve the system to help prevent fraud, such as taking a more structured approach to tackling identity fraud among potentially affected agencies.
The department says it has taken a number of steps to improve the detection of welfare fraud, such as increased co-operation with other agencies. It says it regularly conducts client identity checks as part of its fraud and error surveys. Inspectors are asked to confirm identities as part of their investigations. Surveys have been undertaken and completed on the child benefit, family income supplement and disability allowance schemes.
A recent fraud and error survey on child benefit claimants involved 500 Irish nationals and 500 foreign nationals, all randomly selected. The results indicated that the level of fraud was 2.6 per cent among Irish nationals and 14.4 per cent among foreign nationals. It followed up the survey with a mailshot to all claimants of child benefit with children under six. It has resulted in payments being terminated in 100 cases and suspended in 770.