Child Benefit is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age. Child Benefit can also be claimed for children aged 16 and 17 and 18 if they are in full-time education or full-time training or have a disability and cannot support themselves.
Overpayments of social welfare entitlements can occur where a person provides false or misleading information in their application or through error on the part of either the claimant or the Department. Persons who have been overpaid have a liability to refund these monies.
The table below sets out the number of overpayments raised and their associated value in cases where fraudulent activity was suspected in Child Benefit. These cases arose where a deciding officer was satisfied that there is sufficient evidence that a person deliberately provided false or misleading information or willfully concealed relevant information in relation to their entitlement. The Deputy will appreciate that there is a high evidential standard to be met in such cases.
|
Year
|
No of Suspected Fraud Cases stopped
|
Value of Overpayments
|
|
2018
|
15
|
€108,785.60
|
|
2019
|
12
|
€220,376.60
|
|
2020
|
8
|
€172,452.90
|
|
2021
|
9
|
€133,975.60
|
|
2022
|
4
|
€77,820.00
|
|
2023
|
7
|
€68,960.00
|
|
2024
|
8
|
€67,960.00
|
It should also be noted that eight persons were subject to criminal prosecution following Child Benefit fraud for this period.
Control reviews on the Child Benefit scheme can arise from various sources including the Continuing Eligibility Certification process or from a change of circumstance for the customer. As per the most recent published Control Annual Report (www.gov.ie/en/department-of-social-protection/collections/annual-reports-compliance-and-anti-fraud-strategy/) there were 289,767 control reviews carried out for Child Benefit in 2023.
I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
