Over €190m saved in detection of fraudulent social welfare payments – Keating

“Between 2011 and 2014, €190.2 million has been saved by detecting fraudulent social welfare claims”, says Derek Keating, Fine Gael TD for Dublin Mid-West. Deputy Keating received this information on foot of a parliamentary question he submitted to the Department of Social Protection.
·    In 2011, €34.9 million was recouped from 20,585 cases of fraudulent claims
·    In 2012 20,720 cases were detected to the value of €40.9 million
·    In 2013 there were 27,489 to the value of €61.9 million
·    In 2014 27,437 cases were detected to the value of €52.5 million.
“Overpayments for 2015 are not yet available. This means that in total over 96,000 fraudulent overpayments were detected, saving the state €190.2 million.
“Upon entering Government, Fine Gael committed to addressing and cracking down on fraudulent social welfare claims.
“Social welfare support is extremely valuable and this was never more evident than during the recession, when people found themselves out of work and genuinely in need of the state’s assistance. It is unacceptable that this system be abused.
“Since the launch of the Action Plan for jobs the Live Register has dropped from 15.1% to 9.3%, meaning that reliance on social welfare is slowly reducing. This Government is committed to making work pay and to ensuring that the number of people at work continues to rise.
“A well-run and transparent social welfare system is a key component of a functioning economy, and it is therefore very welcome that these fraudulent overpayments are being detected, saving the state and the taxpayer.”