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THE DEPARTMENT OF Social Protection has launched an anti-fraud programme later today as part of the crackdown in the welfare system.
Some €10 million has already been recovered as part of the department’s new procedures and further savings have been made from stopping these payments.
In one instance, a man claiming jobseeker’s had €400,000 in his bank account. He was convicted and fined €2,500 and received a four-month suspended prison sentence. The €30,000 overpaid by the department was also refunded in full.
The new anti-fraud programme, which was launched today, involves checks at the point where a person makes their claim, with reviews once payment begins and verification that the entitlements continues to be met.
This strategy aims to achieve savings of €510 million, review one million social welfare claims and cover €75 million in overpayments. New measures include:
The department has also been working closely with Revenue to develop information exchanges to facilitate fraud detection. A total of 941 investigations into people suspected of welfare fraud have not been concluded.
Some €25.7 million in total has been either been recovered from over-payments or saved over the course of the year by stopping fraudsters’ payments.
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that recent integration of systems means earnings and assets can now be matched against records of people in receipt of means tested payments to cut down on this. The new social insurance identity cards have already “produced a lot of results” according to the minister and the new abilities to run checks on those receiving payments will take this further.
The extra powers given to social welfare officers are airports targeting welfare tourism have meant 151 cases of this have been identified in the last two years, she revealed.
However said said “most people who receive a social welfare payment get what they’re entitled to – no more and no less and that’s really important particularly when you think about people like pensioners”.
Burton insisted that this new system would not mean more red tape and longer waiting times for claimants – rather the integration means a jobseeker’s claim could be processed “in two to three days”.
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How is it possible to spend €20 billion annually and not have effective fraud aversion and risk mitigation measures until now? This country has become a global magnet for freeloaders and parasites travelling under the ‘social justice’ meal ticket.
The biggest freeloaders and parasites travelling under the ‘social justice’ meal ticket are the bankers and politicians.
So all those wealthy ex politians. Will have their large pensions taken away?
Applies to everyone and children as it is in licenses passports too.Hooks up to all digital operations, at a corrupt switch. We have plenty fit that roll. Joan is a very fully active anti democracy activist. With an objective and she doing what she set out to do. Sell out Democracy She is doing a great great job keep in mind who’s company she falls into nazi/stazi/kgb. Rest of us, we civilized/journalists/politicians are doing a lousy lousy lousy job protecting future generations and ourselves and doing little to block another new wave of this historic totalitarian power types And women politicians are clearly not less corrupt nor less evil in form. Least it clears that up.
One thing we now know after five years, no one is interested in Fraud or you’d go after the whole not a tiny tiny section. Also now facial profiling is fingerprinting in stasi/nazi/kgb form history. Also know in digital age it hooks up to all digital activity. Also know we live in a ruthless and corrupt political system propped up by a gombeen culture of false properness, ignorance and betrayal for greed. So where and who are what is real Joan Burton doing. Introducing a system applies to everyone and child as it is in licenses passports too. If your no longer free someone has effectively sold you out. Joan has sold democracy out. And women politicians are not less corrupt nor less evil in form. Least it clears that up.
Just because they “announced something” doesn’t mean it hasn’t been there for years already. Just means they want new headlines about what riles people up.
Go for it Joan. I hope the government will also take an interest in and do something about White collar crime and Government party officials shaking down “charities”.
A tribunal found a wealthy donor to FG of being corrupt, government action to date let’s enrich him further.There’s your answer to white collar crime.
Hope she puts as much effort into the staff @social welfare offices that after 12 month’s haven’t sorted out my payment yet rang the other day they said couldn’t find my documents so from now on I register everything not alone that had to go back to consultants /Dr’s get all my paper work again @ a cost so hopefully they don’t loose these
While that man apparently had €400k in his account (Which is more than enough to live off )and assuming he lost his job, is he not legally entitled to social welfare?
Correct me if I’m wrong but I always thought once you get your stamps or whatever you are legally entitled to SW.
Payments are means tested. 400,000 is definitely enough to live on and would justify at least getting a reduced payment. I would agree he is still entitled to something.
While the article fails to mention it, the radio said he was on Jobseeker’s Allowance (means tested) as opposed to Benefit (stamps based).
He would have been entitled to benefit which works on stamps and when they run out (average of a year) he would have went onto assistance which is means tested
On both occasions he would have had to provide bank savings etc so he “hid” the money he was supposed to declare
Either way, his punishment for stealing 30k was just 2500 euro.
WOW.
If the guy’s welfare was means tested then why wasn’t €400,000 noticed before he received his decision?
I’m not in a habit of defrauding the state but having more than one bank account and not declaring it or a credit union etc could be 2 ways
I’m sure there are a lot of ways if someone puts there mind to it
He had to pay back €30,000 and the article says he did in full.
Repaying the stolen money is hardly a form of punishment!!
He also received a 4 month custodial sentence.. granted it was suspended for whatever reason, but he did receive it.
Sure thing, but a suspended sentence is the equivalent of the judge wagging his finger at you, and asking you not to get caught again.
This guy should be forced to do community service. Why was that not considered by the judge?
Jesus Joan the way you were fiddling the dole numbers, I thought their was no one left on social welfare…
So all this has recovered 10 million? It really goes to show that the spongers really aren’t the ones ruining the economy…. Cut wages or pensions for a few politicians and you would make a bigger saving.
Some people think fraud is ok if it is under a certain figure. Some people also think that there is ok to commit fraud if politicians are perceived to be earning too much. There is no argument to such ‘thinking’. You might as well say that it is ok to commit fraud because the the weather is better in Spain than it is here.
10 million would have paid for all 16 year old girls to be vaccinated against cervical cancer a couple of years ago bit the government of the time told us that they couldn’t come up with the bobs. Just putting 10 million into perspective for you
Who said fraud was ok? It just seems to me like the biggest fraudsters are trying to make themselves look good by telling us they’ve caught a few other small-time fraudsters.
Some people think fraud is ok if it is committed by suit and tie criminals, old private school chums, politicans and Media Magnates……..
My mother , an 84 year old pensioner got a ‘visit’ from them a while back. They were so nice to her I could smell a rat straight away. A week after the visit her pension was cut by €15 a week. Reason ? In order to pay my dads fees in the nursing home (fair deal) mam cashes his 80 pw cie pension chq gives the 60 to pay the FD bill and uses the remaining 20 to buy him cigerettes. This was deemed to be ‘income’ by the social people ( super nice) who also ‘reported ‘ her to revenue for undeclared income.
SO….Yeah Joan…….good work. My mother turns off her heating now to pay the property tax and forthcomming water charges. God forgive you…I wont.
She perhaps should have kept quiet about the money but to play devils advocate at what point does this extra income not get deducted from your mum income, is she perhaps lucky they didn’t look for overpayment for undeclared earnings for this last 20 years during which means exemptions weren’t as generous as they are now and during which she mightn’t of had someone in care?
sly as foxes….that’s a disgusting way to treat an elderly person….
Well joe the whole problem i have is that the cheque my mother cashes in her bank account is my dads money not hers. He has been waiting a long time to get in to a nursing home and my mam cared for him for over 12 years at home with their help i might add so this new twist is at odds with their helpfulness over the years. My mams only income is her state pension i might add.
Ronan as a couple it doesn’t matter it’s combined income that counts, a millionaires wife has no entitlement to a means tested pension if she has no money herself.But I don’t know your mums situation and theres different schemes such as carers allowance, contributory pension, Qualified Adults and non-Contributory pension(means tested). But if your parents were receiving a means tested payment and the social welfare only found now about other sources of income/pension your lucky social welfare aren’t looking for years of overpayments not just €15 means deduction.
Thanks joe yep its a tough one. My mothers pension was non-contrib as such and means tested. My dads pension was always known to them. Just to clarify.
Notice how there is no crack down on politicians with millions in their bank accounts as they extracted tens of thousands from the State each year?
Enda has been in the Dail for 40 years, how much wealth has he amassed during this time?
The real welfare spongers in this country are the people that run it.
People keep electing him to the position to which they can easily find his wage. Your problem there is with the voters if he’s just sponging it and not doing the job.
Is there someone who could calculate the amount of tax payers money that Enda and his extended family have received in state funds starting with his father.And include his pension.
I’ll get you my pretty’s and your dole card too.
Sorry it’s just that pic of Burton !!
Go on Joan!!! Nab those ‘protesters’ in Raheny too. They don’t work!
Do you? Seem to have an awful amount of time on your hands commenting on every water related article and now this one.
I do yeh.
I believe you, just amazed at the amount of time you have to slag off others.
It’s great at the top.
Is that a new law Liam to protest you have to be employed?
Liam just remember not to answer using the wrong account, you forgot at least three times yesterday by my count.
It is Kerry. You must contribute to the country to protest about it.
What account was that Norman?
Yeh that why you posted in the wrong account you forgot.Write them down lad.Just looks bad, try harder.
No, see I’m asking you to clarify what account. This is my only account, but you seem to insinuate that I am somebody else.
Liam my boy why should I?, if you can’t be bothered in keeping track of what account you’re posting under why should I help you.
Now toddle off good lad.
Liam , darling , you’ve been extremely busy this morning ,”trying” to be a “cool dude” , you’re failing miserably ! How old are you ? I would hazard a guess and say 22-25 and extremely wet behind the ears :) Run home to Mammy and Daddy little boy , it’s nearly dinner time :) Your humor is boring and way overused , repetitive sh!t ( poop :) Bye – bye ,boy!
Suit yourself. If you can’t answer a simple question we’ll leave it there.
^^ Oh Brendan , you’ve only gone and done it again :)))
Hahahahahaha!
Liam/Brendan well done, idiot.
You help make me laugh. Fair play to you Norm.
I hope more Parasites are caught..
When’s the last time Joan took a pay cut to help the cut backs …..
Two to three days
I was temporally unemployed in 2009 and I was processed in 15 minutes.
Temporary unemployment does process a lot quicker. When I left college in 2010 it took 8 weeks to process my application. When I became unemployed again in 2013 it took about a month to process. Your story is definitely an exception rather than the standard.
All in it took less than a week
I went down to SW they said come back in a couple of days with a check list of paperwork. When I returned with said paperwork it took about 15 minutes.
Try doing that when you have been self employed 3 months would be quick for a reduced payment if any
so we have and extra ten million euro to spend, were will it go into thin air like everything else. If its not spent on something to help the country and its people then its not a saving
Burton looks like she’s reaching out to snare the precious from Frodo
crackdown. and a picture of some one on crack.
This is just pre election chaff. The percentage of fraud is relatively tiny. No mention of long term disability and unemployables that will never ever work again. Aggressive reactivation of unemployed youths- the fact that there still so many non eu and eu workers working in restaurants shows that there an underclass here that would prefer to live off the state rather than pay their way.
I’d say it’s more to do with paying passive non eu workers peanuts under the table than have Irish workers who know their rights be it work or welfare.
What a load of s?hite anything to distract stupid paddy
The people here bleating on about parasites and freeloaders here are infuriating and seem like government lackeys or Daily Mail readers. These programmes can be incredibly evil, know of cases where lads have been cut off for working maybe 10 days of the year (perhaps less), not declaring it and being cut off. Literally ruining their lifes by not allowing them anything and making them homeless, depressed and in many unfortunate cases commit suicide.
Ask yourself Who are the biggest freeloaders some young lad under 25 who gets 100 a week on a dole or Enda Kenny who’s on €4000 a week??
Also those that bleat on about freeloaders, parasites etc how come you never mention the Queen of England?? That scab takes millions a year off the taxpayer; how come the Daily Fail doesn’t do a expose on her.
See the headline now
Dole Queen takes millions to live in her palace with her pampered dogs.
I didn’t realise that Queen of England (or do you mean the UK?) was claiming illegal social welfare from the Irish government. That is a scandal of the highest order.
ARGHHHHHH!
Jaysus could you change that picture. I just logged on and got the fright of my life!
Police / Nazi state that’s all this is control and once people accept it’s ok to tackle other people it becomes more acceptable to attack everybody.
If welfare fraud is really that bad and criminal remove the welfare.!!!
But then they’d lose control.
Police state….
I agree fraud would be a very low percentage of the overall welfare figure. The important line is near the end ‘people only get what they are entitled to’ it’s a big word ‘entitled’.
What it really means is you never have to work a day in your whole life in Ireland and still have a house, sky sports and a few smokes and drinks at the weekend with your friends.
The way the system is these life time welfares are not breaking any laws but they should be. We need to change the system to help those who really need it the elderly, the sick children or the people crippled with unfair loans having lost their jobs through no fault of their own.
We need to stop generational welfare recipients, where children learn from their parents that there is no need to work in order to have a house or a holiday in Spain etc …
The figures do lie our welfare bill is almost 30,000,000,000 euro annually (when you factor in payments directly and the cost of providing health care to people with medical cards. For a country with a population of just over 4,000,000 that is a huge amount. An unsustainable amount.
Change the law and end the welfare lifestyle everyone knows it exists but it’s covered up with unemployment figures that include babies; 150,000 were unemployed during the ‘Celtic tiger’ years. They chose not to work and instead stick there beak in bowl of tax payers money.
I support everything Joan Burton does. It’s one tough job but she will get there.
@fm
Just to clarify, the welfare bill is about €20bn per annum. Social welfare for unemployed people is about €4bn out of that. The rest goes on stuff like pensions, disability payments and child benefit.
Don’t forget Florence half the medical costs in Ireland are welfare costs they just aren’t included in the 20 billion welfare budget. 10 plus 20 equals 30.
Smokescreen alert!!!
The new free travel cards ,are designed so that they know when you get on the bus and how often you use the bus ,so they will know if a person is traveling to work or not
@Andrea
I don’t know what social welfare system you’re talking about but jobseekers on benefit or allowance don’t get free travel cards.
Disability and carers allowances are means tested and also have limits on working earnings/hours worked receive free travel. So if you receiving these payments and not declaring earnings the travel records would help build a case for SWI.
Photo ID and singe in once a week that will stop it
Joan,you are the biggest disappointment ,I voted Labour for the first time in my life,never again.If someone is entitled to social welfare he should receive it and it should have nothing to do with his assets,ie 400,000,if he was a non national he would probably get a free Car.
I think if you your job is not secure better to spend the money , put it into your house hide it in an offshore account . Whatever you do do not save it in Ireland 41% tax on interest and Joan will be looking at your bank account for amounts over 20K for the SWA.
have your say