Peadar Tóibín
Question:101. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of fraud cases with social protection payments detected in each of the past five years. [6636/26]
View answerWednesday, 28 January 2026
Questions (101)
Written answers
Overpayments of social welfare entitlements can occur for a number of reasons, including through error on the part of either the customer or the Department or where a person has provided false or misleading information. Persons who have been overpaid social welfare have a liability to refund the overpayment as they have been in receipt of a payment to which they were not entitled.
Suspected fraud cases arise where a deciding officer is satisfied that there is sufficient evidence that a person deliberately provided false or misleading information or wilfully 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.
The table below sets out the number of overpayments raised and the associated value of those cases where an element of fraudulent activity was suspected in the years from 2020 to 2024. Data for 2025 is currently being audited.
|
Year |
No. of Suspected Fraud Cases |
Value of Suspected Fraud Overpayments (M) |
|
2020 |
5,338 |
€20.3 |
|
2021 |
6,290 |
€19.0 |
|
2022 |
5,597 |
€19.6 |
|
2023 |
5,097 |
€17.9 |
|
2024 |
6,007 |
€24.3 |
I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.