Ms Joan Burton TD, Minister for Social Protection, outlined savings this week of almost 345 million euro which has been achieved across the Department’s schemes through fraud control measures.
In the first seven months of the year, Department officials reviewed some 350,000 individual claims for social welfare payments.
Reviews of One Parent Family payments accounted for over 101 million euro in savings, followed by Pensions savings of over 84 million euro and over 49 million euro savings in Illness payments. Savings in Jobseekers claims were over 46 million euro with over 126,376 claims reviewed, while there were almost 19 million euro savings in Child Benefit payments.
In addition to these claims, the Department carried out over 990 employer PRSI inspections to check their compliance.
Welcoming the figures, Minister Burton said that given the constraints on public expenditure at present, it is not acceptable that fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is 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.
New Fraud Control Plan
Minister Burton plans to launch a new comprehensive fraud control plan in September. The measures to be announced in the plan will ensure that an integrated approach is taken to the prevention, deterrence and detection of social welfare fraud across the social welfare system. The Minister said, “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.”
Reporting possible fraud
The Department of Social Protection accepts reports of possible fraud offered by members of the public in relation to the Department’s schemes. Members of the public are asked to provide as much detail about the case they are reporting as possible, and they can do so anonymously.
In the first seven months of this year, 8,560 reports were received in the Central Control Section of the Department, compared with 6,046 in the same period last year. There is a notable increase in reports of suspected abuse of the social welfare system being reported by members of the public:
• In 2008, for the entire year 1,044 anonymous reports were received in Control Division;
• In 2009, for the entire year 6,429 anonymous reports were received;
• In 2010, for the entire year 12,648 anonymous reports were received.
Commenting on the figures, Minister Burton said that each and every report made by a member of the public is followed up by the appropriate area to assess if action is necessary.
How Fraud is Combated—Data Matching
According to a statement, working closely and collaboratively with other agencies to prevent fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is a key element of the Department’s control strategy. Various state agencies and bodies provide information to the Department which is used to data match and cross-check at initial claim stage and during reviews to determine on-going eligibility for entitlement.
Regular data matches occur with the Revenue Commissioners on commencement of employment and with the General Register’s Office on birth, marriages and deaths information. Other examples of on-going co-operation include data-matching and sharing of information with:
• The Irish Prison Service, which provides prisoner data to the Department on a weekly basis;
• The Department of Education, which provides student data;
• The Commission for Taxi Regulation, which provide data on taxi/hackney licences; and
• The Private Residential Tenancy Board, which provides information on registered landlords which is matched against the Department’s payments systems.
Data matching is a very effective method of identifying high risk claims for review and is an example of good cross-departmental co-operation, according to the department. Existing legislation provides that relevant information can be matched in specific once-off targeted operations or through one-to-one data exchanges for a particular case. There is also cross-border co-operation with the relevant agencies in Northern Ireland, the UK and in the wider EU regarding control investigations.
Suspected Fraud/Legal Proceedings
In cases where serious or protracted social welfare fraud has occurred, these cases are either referred to the Chief State Solicitor’s Office or Director of Public Prosecution for criminal prosecution. In other serious cases, such as multiple claiming or personation, the inspectors may refer the cases to the Gardai for investigation. A person who is found guilty of abusing the social welfare system may be fined or imprisoned.
Special Investigation Unit
The function of the Department’s Special Investigation Unit is to investigate and report on fraud and abuse in the various Social Welfare assistance and insurance schemes. The work also includes employer inspections on behalf of the Department and in conjunction with the tax inspectorate to ensure compliance in relation to the Social Insurance fund. In addition to investigating credible reports of social welfare fraud and abuse, the Unit’s key areas of activity for 2011 will incorporate examination of, among others, the hidden economy, including casual trading and construction; the taxi sector; non-residency of non-Irish nationals; and lifestyle and assets reviews, which are directed towards individuals whose lifestyle and display of wealth or assets are not commensurate with Social Welfare dependency.
