SOCIAL WELFARE:UP TO 80 per cent of social welfare overpayments examined in a survey by the CAG could have been avoided if the Department of Social and Family Affairs had carried out reviews of its own information.
In the report into accounts of the public service, John Buckley also said that of the €55.6 million in social welfare overpayments recorded by the department in 2008, more than €21 million was attributed to fraud or suspected fraud. Mr Buckley also found, in a separate study of five social welfare payments from 2004 to 2007, that significant money was likely to have been paid out “in excess of entitlement”.
More than 18,000 cases of fraud or suspected fraud were recorded by the department in 2008 valued at more than €21 million. Some €16,000 of this was recovered and 354 cases were forwarded to the Chief State Solicitor’s Office, with 309 prosecutions finalised. The majority of the court cases related to jobseeker payments and most ended in the individuals being fined. Some 44 people were given the Probation Act and two received prison sentences.
In a more detailed survey, Mr Buckley examined overpayments in Disability Allowance, Carer’s Allowance and Invalidity Pension made in 2008 and totalling €6.1 million. In the case of Disability Allowance, by far the most common reason for overpayment was the failure of the client to fully disclose means. “In each of the cases reviewed the department had information available that should have led to the detection of the overpayments sooner,” Mr Buckley said. Details of some clients’ earnings were on the department’s own central records system. This was also the case in eight out of the 10 overpayments of Invalidity Pension examined.
Overpayments of almost €600,000 on Carer’s Allowance could have been avoided if case reviews had been carried out on schedule, Mr Buckley said.
He expressed concern that changes in the circumstances of social welfare clients were not being detected at an earlier stage given that the department already had the information it needed.
“Up to 80 per cent of the overpayments examined could have been avoided had reviews been conducted at an earlier time.”
In response to his concerns, the department said it was no longer practical or feasible to review every claim on a regular basis. A new review policy was introduced in January based on risk rating and it was hoped this would deliver better value for money by “focusing scarce resources on the most appropriate cases”.
He also carried out a separate study of overpayments and fraud and error in One Parent Family Payment, Child Benefit, Disability Allowance, Illness Benefit and non-contributory Old Age Pension.
Projecting from the claims examined, he concluded that only 7 per cent of the likely overpayments of One Parent Family Allowance had been recorded by the department in 2007.
“Significant amounts of money are likely to have been paid out each year in excess of entitlement and, in some cases, a relatively small element of payments made in excess of entitlement is being detected and pursued for recovery,” he said. The department needed to carry out regular and systematic surveys across all schemes, he said.
