The Government should introduce a social welfare amnesty to prevent fraud estimated at €660 million a year, a business group said today.
The Small Firms Association said it was estimated 3 per cent of payments a year are lost across all social welfare categories and that this must stop.
It suggested a 90-day social welfare amnesty whereby recipients would be given the opportunity to admit any fraudulent claims.
If an admission was not made within this period of time and the recipient was subsequently found to have made a fraudulent claims “the maximum penalties should be applied without exception including prison time”, the body said.
“While the Department of Social and Family Affairs have taken action to deal with the issue of fraud, in 2009, 308 cases were forwarded to the Chief State Solicitor’s Office to initiate legal proceedings and 356 cases were finalised in court and more recently in the area of cross border social welfare claims, however, more needs to be done,” said SFA director Avine McNally.
“The recent live register and exchequer figures show the demands that are being placed on all financial resources.
“When a fraudulent social welfare claim is made - not alone are these individuals defrauding the State, they are defrauding tax payers and other social welfare recipients who have been forced to suffer welfare reductions due to the recent public expenditure cuts.”
Ms McNally noted the Minister for Social & Family Affairs recently revealed 6,400 reports had been received from the public last year relating to alleged fraudulent claims.
The figure for the first three months in 2010 was just over 2,700.
“This clearly shows that the public are not willing to ignore abuse of the system, when there are individuals who are suffering as a result of recent welfare cuts, nor do tax payers wish to see scare finances being abused – they want further action in this area.”