Over €480 million was saved last year after tip-offs about welfare fraud led to a review of thousands of claims, according to new figures from the Department of Social Welfare and Family Affairs
A review of claims through fraud and control measures led to savings of €484 million savings in 2009, compared to €476 million a year earlier.
As revealed in the Irish Times last week there has been a five-fold increase in the number of reports being made by people alleging social welfare fraud in the past year.
Approximately 6,000 tip-offs from members of the public were given to the Department of Social and Family Affairs’ central control section in the first 10 months of last year. This compares with 1,044 for the whole of 2008.
Minister for Social Affairs Mary Hanafin said today that savings of the order of €533 million through fraud and control measures are forecast for 2010
Savings on One Parent Family payments following claim reviews realised over €117 million last year, while savings from Illness schemes led to savings of almost €90million,
Child Benefit payments savings of just over €89 million were also raised as were savings across pensions schemes of €84 million and Jobseekers of €60million.
In addition to these claims some 1,560 employers underwent PRSI compliance inspections which secured €5.6 million in savings.
A new online facility for members of the public to report their suspicions of social welfare fraud has been announced. The service, which is included on the Department of Social and Family Affairs website (www.welfare.ie) allows individuals to tip-off the department anonymously.
In 2009, 308 cases involving suspected social welfare fraud were forwarded to the Chief State Solicitor Office to initiate legal proceedings.
In addition, 356 cases were finalised in court with 217 having fines imposed, and in 10 cases a prison sentence imposed. A further 45 individuals were given the Probation Act while 28 received a suspended sentence.
