Five farmers overpaid by average of €116,000 each last year

Five farmers received social welfare overpayments averaging €116,000 each last year, according to the Comptroller & Auditor General’s report for 2013.

A total of €2.9 million in overpayments were made last year from the farm assist scheme, which supports low-income farmers.

An average of €7,575 was made to each of 377 farmers who received overpayments, according to the 230-page report from the State financial watchdog.

But the Comptroller & Auditor General found that five farmers accounted for 20 per cent or €580,000 of the total overpaid.

The report also revealed that over a third of 125 cases examined examined across the State, have not been reviewed for more than three years.

In one incident, a farmer in the Ballina, Co Mayo area whose case had not been reviewed for 10 years, was found to have been overpaid by €56,000 over a period of six years. The full amount of the overpayment was repaid by the claimant in a single payment, the report found.

The report states: “The audit found that payment can continue for many years without an in-depth review to identify possible changes in means or circumstances.”

Farm Assist was established in 1999 to provide support to low-income farmers to help them continue to farm and to maintain the viability of rural communities. A total of €525 million has been spent on the scheme in the last five years, with an average weekly payment of €181.12 in 2013, down from €188.23 in 2012.

The payment was made last year to 10,300 claimants, down 1,000 on the previous year. Farm Assist is paid to about 7 per cent of all farmers, an estimated 140,000 farmers.

Fraud and errors worth more than €100 million a year in jobseekers’ claims has been revealed in the report for 2013.

The 230-page document published today by the State’s financial watchdog shows fraud and error of €2.68 million per week in jobseeker claims last year.

The report from the office of Séamus McCarthy, who has responsibility for the audit of public funds, also showed fraud and error in the weekly widow/widower/surviving partner pension of almost €10 million annually.

A total of 1,000 jobseeker’s allowance recipient cases were surveyed, with 85 per cent being deemed satisfactory. Customer error was found in 119 cases, departmental error in nine cases and fraud in 21 cases. The payment is made to some 295,000 people weekly.

The suspected fraud cases included recipients not available for work because they are out of the country or the claimant not being entitled to the adult dependent payment.

Errors and fraud in rent supplement amounted to €390,000 weekly or just over €20 million annually based on the report figures.

The State paid out €373 million in rent supplement last year to 80,000 recipients.

In a survey of 1,000 cases, the report found a net fraud or error rate of 5 per cent, compared to 5.8 per cent in the UK.

The survey showed 38 cases of suspected fraud, 67 errors made by the Department of Social Protection and customer error in 55 cases.

Some 84 per cent of the cases were deemed satisfactory.

Four cases of fraud were identified in the contributory widow/widower/surviving partner pension scheme through remarriage, new cohabitation and non-disclosure of means for the fuel allowance.

The weekly fraud or error estimated at €190,000 included 37 cases of customer error out of 947 cases surveyed , while in 36 cases departmental error was responsible.

The C&AG’s report looks at expenditure in all Government departments.