ALMOST €345 million has been saved as a result of fraud and control measures put in place this year by the Department of Social Protection.
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said yesterday that in the first seven months of the year officials had reviewed 350,000 individual claims for social welfare.
The Department of Social Protection said reviews of one-parent-family payments accounted for more than €101 million in savings.
It also said reviews of pensions had produced savings of more than €84 million, while a figure greater than €49 million had been generated as a result of examinations of people’s claims for illness payments.
“Savings in jobseekers’ claims were more than €46 million, with more than 126,376 claims reviewed, while there was almost €19 million savings in child benefit payments. In addition to these claims, the department carried out over 990 employer PRSI inspections to check their compliance.”
Ms Burton said that given the constraints on public expenditure, it was not acceptable that fraud and abuse of the social welfare system was tolerated. “Vigorously preventing and combating fraudulent activity within the social welfare system is a key priority that I have set for my department,” she said. The Minister said she would launch a plan next month to ensure an integrated approach was taken to the prevention, deterrence and detection of social welfare fraud.
“The new plan will take a revised and renewed approach to tackling the challenges posed by social welfare fraud, while also recognising that it is important that access to the department’s services is not unnecessarily difficult for genuine customers.”
The department also said that it had received a significant increase in reports of possible fraud submitted anonymously by concerned members of the public. It said that, in 2008, a total of 1,044 anonymous reports were received. However, by 2010, this figure had grown to 12,648.
The department said that in cases where serious or protracted social welfare fraud had occurred, cases were referred to the Chief State Solicitors Office or the Director of Public Prosecution. It said that up to the end of July 2011, a total of 159 cases had been finalised in court, of which 128 related to jobseekers’ claims. It said that 106 cases had resulted in fines being imposed. In four cases a prison sentence was imposed.
The department said areas in which its special investigation unit would be looking at this year included: markets/casual trading, couriers, clothes recycling, car valeting, the security sector and haulage. It would also be looking at the construction sector (one-off builds), restaurants and the fast-food sector. Delivery services, newspaper distribution, and satellite and TV installers would also come under scrutiny.