€6.5m overpayments 'misleading'

Overpayments in child benefit of €6.5 million in the past five years were less than 1 per cent of the total benefit paid during that period, an Oireachtas committee was told.

Bernadette Lacey, director general of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, rejected as inaccurate and misleading a recent newspaper headline and report which said that "€6.5 million missing in immigrant child allowance blunder". She told the Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs that the €6.5 million related to overpayments for five years from 2001 to 2005 and was for all child benefit claims and not asylum seekers alone.

"The department does not believe that any level of overpayments is acceptable and has a programme of control activities to ensure that these are kept to a minimum." However, Ms Lacey added that "during the period 2001 to 2004, some €7.76 billion was paid in respect of child benefit and overpayments of €6.5 million represent 0.83 per cent of the amount paid out". The department has a total budget of €13 billion and makes weekly payments to one million people.

Ms Lacey also apologised for the delays in pension payments. There had been an increase of 11,500 or 14 per cent in new claims in the first three months of 2006 and this had put pressure on the sections delivering the service, while a major modernisation programme was under way.

Referring to the child benefit overpayments, she told the committee that last year, 46 per cent were because of children leaving the State and moving to live in Northern Ireland or Britain. Other situations where overpayments arose included a child leaving school or going to live in a different household.

John Carthy (FF, Mayo) and committee chairman Willie Penrose (Lab, Westmeath) expressed concern at the department's pursuit of people who had received overpayments as a "genuine mistake". Mr Penrose said the department should be able to "pump in the PPS number and know whether there is an overpayment from day one, not 10 or 11 weeks later".