THE Department of Social Welfare detected overpayments of social insurance and social assistance amounting to £16.4 million last year, according to the report.
The amount of overpayment, attributed by the Department to, fraud or suspected fraud was £11.5 million.
The recent CSO survey which investigated fraudulent unemployment claims indicated that, the figure for that category alone could be as high as £350 million.
The Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, responding to the survey, has said fraud could be as high as £100 million, "or perhaps more".
A spokeswoman for the Department said savings achieved by the Department's anti-fraud activities last year totalled £125 million. This was based on "expenditure saved" as well as overpayments.
During 1995 the amount of overpaid money recovered by the Department through cash returned or sums withheld from current entitlements was £6.5 million, according to the report.
Overpayments written off as irrecoverable were £9.9 million. The amount of overpayments not dealt with at the end of the year was £31.5 million.
The total budget for social insurance and social assistance in 1995 was £4.2 billion.
There were court proceedings against 35 persons during the year, all of which were successful. The cases involved total overpaynents of just over £121,000. The report does not state how much of this was recovered.
In social insurance overpayments, the highest categories for fraud or suspected fraud were unemployment benefit (£785,000), disability benefit (£528,000) and invalidity pension (£405,00).
With social assistance the highest categories were - unemployment assistance (£4 million), old age and blind non-contributory pensions (£3.3 million), and lone parent (unmarried) allowance (£1.1 million). Payments of arrears under the EU Equal Treatment directive are expected to cost £289 million, according to the report.
Legal costs are given as £4 million and administration costs as £9.5 million.
A substantial number of overpayments was made because of administrative mistakes. Up to May there were 623 confirmed cases of overpayment, involving a total of £429,000. Up to June, £2,047 had been recovered, in, eight cases.
The overpayments in a further 801 potential cases identified have yet to be determined.
