Almost 25% of one-parent families were paid too much

WELFARE PAYMENTS:ALMOST A quarter of one-parent families received more than they should in social welfare payments, with a potential estimated loss to the exchequer of €82 million last year.

The report of the Comptroller Auditor General found that about 24 per cent of claimants examined in a “fraud and error” survey received 7.3 per cent more than they were entitled to.

The report said that if the loss was spread across the entire scheme in 2009 “the resulting loss to taxpayers in 2009 would have been in the order of €82 million”.

The comptroller notes that last year 18 per cent of cases reviewed were found to be paid more than their entitlements and as a result payments were reduced or terminated. It said the department estimated “control savings of some €114 million”.

The report says however, that despite the high level of detection of overpayment, there was a low rate of “debt” recovery for those excess payments.

In 2009, just over €9.5 million was recovered, according to the report.

Excess social welfare payments last year totalled an estimated €358 million across all department schemes.

The reports show that the largest overpayments were for jobseeker’s allowance and the one-parent family payment which in each case was €82 million.

By the end of 2009, 203,000 were on jobseeker’s allowance with total payments of just over €2 billion.

The next highest overpayment was in the disability allowance when excess payments totalled €80 million although almost half the claims terminated were reinstated following an appeal.

A further €45 million in overpayments were made for child benefit and €38 million in State pension payments.Social welfare recipients repaying excess money to the department are typically paying less than €10 a week, the report says.