A STRATEGIC fraud and control plan has been put in place within the Department of Social Protection to crack down on abuses within the social welfare system. It was not before time, judging by a number of recent Garda raids and court cases involving large sums of public money. Lax administration during years of rapid economic growth may now be contributing to a growth in bogus and unjustified claims. A crude pointer in that direction is that while the population of the State stands at 4.58 million, there are some 7.2 million PPS numbers which allow individuals to access all public services.
It would be wrong to conclude from the above figures that millions of people are defrauding the system. Although PPS numbers are unique to each individual and have been issued to everyone born here since 1971 and to all workers since 1979, they are not automatically extinguished when a person dies. In the same way, while about one million PPS numbers were issued to foreign nationals between 2003 and 2008, less than half that number remain active and it is not known if the recipients have left the State. These weaknesses in the system should be addressed.
PPS numbers are used in applying for social welfare benefits. They are also necessary to register for health, education, housing services and for taxation purposes. They represent one of the State’s major weapons in ensuring tax compliance and in combating growth in the black economy. Because of that, the system should be transparent, robust and easily checkable.
Because the present PPS system is limited to a maximum of 10 million numbers, there are plans to revise and improve it from 2013. That process should allow for a necessary winnowing of existing numbers and for a complete audit of the system. Before that happens, however, the disparity between population size and PPS numbers should be addressed. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some are being offered for sale by criminals and claims are being made on behalf of dead people.
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, who controls an annual budget in excess of €20 billion, has prioritised a “strategic fraud and control plan” that will crack down on fraud and abuse within the system and involve an active policing of the black economy. As purse strings tighten, so should enforcement. The last available figures, for 2009, show that fraud and suspected fraud within social welfare alone cost the State €21 million. Lost taxes would add considerably to that figure.