A HIGH fraud rate of 12 per cent has been discovered following an investigation of welfare payments to people suspected of not being resident in the State.
The almost 600 terminated payments, which came about as a consequence of home visits and interviews about claim status by Department of Social Protection inspectors, will save the exchequer some €6.33 million.
In the first 11 months of 2011, 4,745 cases were examined as part of a targeted review undertaken by the department.
The individuals concerned were suspected of not being resident in the State, while 592 were found not to be after failing to provide evidence of their residency in the jurisdiction.
In surveys undertaken by the department over the last five years, fraud and error rates among various schemes have ranged from 1 per cent in the case of the State contributory pension to 1.9 per cent on the non-contributory State pension and to 3.1 per cent of expenditure on the jobseeker’s allowance.
A much higher rate of more than 12 per cent was uncovered when the department’s special investigation unit focused on individuals who were suspected of not being resident in the State as part of a range of ongoing national projects.
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton announced a fraud initiative last September which she hopes will achieve savings of €625 million this year. The initiative aims to target sectors where fraud is more likely to occur.
The Irish Times reported last month that reporting on suspected social welfare fraud has risen dramatically, with new figures showing that anonymous tip-offs to the Department of Social Protection have increased from about 600 in 2005 to more than 16,000 in 2011.
Email is the preferred method of alerting the authorities to alleged offences. More than 10,000 electronic messages were sent last year by members of the public who suspected social welfare fraud by neighbours or acquaintances.
The department’s analysis of welfare fraud has found that non-residency in the State – where a person claims a social welfare payment that requires residency when he or she is no longer resident – was one of the principal ways in which payments are fraudulently claimed.
Other ways in which social welfare payments are fraudulently claimed tend to centre on concurrent working and claiming, non-disclosure of means, multiple claiming or personation, cohabitation, social insurance and employer non-compliance.
