THE GOVERNMENT is to scrap paying dole payments directly into claimants' bank accounts in an attempt to curb fraud by foreign and Irish workers who have quit Ireland for jobs abroad after losing their jobs here. MARK HENNESSY, Political Correspondent reports
Under the change, which is to be announced officially today by Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, claimants will have to sign on at post offices weekly, rather than have the payments made automatically to them.
The Department of Social and Family Affairs has suspected for months that significant numbers, particularly workers who have lost construction jobs, have exploited the loophole by claiming benefit here, and then leaving to find work abroad.
Currently, those claiming benefits must sign on at their local social welfare office once a month, though payments are made weekly at post offices, or directly into bank accounts.
Now, payments will have to be made weekly from post offices.
If the payment is not collected within the week it will be cancelled and the claimant will have to go to their Social Welfare Office to get it back.
Since last September welfare officials have monitored new people signing on to the Live Register to make sure claimants are living in Ireland. Some 2,048 cases were subjected to closer examination.
Of these, 182, or almost 10 per cent, were found "not to be resident at the time they were claiming benefits or were claiming a level of benefits which they were not entitled to", Social and Family Affairs sources said.
Workers from other EU states are entitled to claim unemployment payments if they have worked here for more than two years, under arrangements made when the EU enlarged by taking in 10 Eastern European and Mediterranean states in 2004.
Earlier this month, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs said she intended to save €25 million this year from the department's budget by cutting down on fraud. This is part of the Government's wider plans to save €490 million on State spending.
The level of monitoring required is significant since, on average, nearly 8,000 people signed on to the Live Register for the first time each week this year, while 5,500 others left it.
Social and Family Affairs officials now intend to "intensify" their search "over coming months" for illegal claims by regular home visits to ensure that claimants are still in Ireland.
In 2007, 361 cases were sent to the Chief State Solicitor's Office.
So far this year, 205 files have been referred for prosecution and 134 people have been dealt with by the courts.
Last year, €63 million was saved after 165,000 illness benefit cases were reviewed, while an examination of 25,000 single-family payment cases saved €78 million more, and a review of Old-Age Pensions saved €22 million more.
Under unemployment benefit rules, claimants must be without work, capable of it, available to do it and genuinely seeking it before they qualify for either jobseekers benefit or allowances.