Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 November 2025
112. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Social Protection the total amount of social-welfare payments written off in the past two years; the proportion that relates to deceased recipients; the steps his Department is taking to reduce future write-offs (including digital checking, beneficiary verification, and inter-agency data sharing); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61987/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department is committed to ensuring that only those people who are eligible, receive welfare and other payments. Achieving this requires that robust safeguards are in place that secure our payment systems, detect possible fraud and error, and prevent possible fraudulent claiming.
A range of verification processes are employed to validate and verify the information provided by an applicant. This includes verification of identity through the SAFE registration process which authenticates a person’s identity; regular reviews of claims in payment; data matching with a range of external bodies and agencies to identify inconsistencies in information provided; risk assessment of individual records and development of analytic solutions to increase the detection rate of non-compliant claims, and ongoing IT system enhancements to reduce the scope for error.
My Department’s control processes are subject to regular audits, including by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, and are considered to be fit for purpose.
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 social welfare have a liability to refund the overpayment as they have been in receipt of a payment to which they were not entitled.
An overpayment is written-off, or partially written-off, in circumstances where there is no prospect of future recovery of the amount due. In 2023, my Department wrote off €7.6m of overpayments of which €5.3m referred to deceased customers, and in 2024, €7.9m of which €6.8m referred to deceased customers. In general, overpayments of deceased customers are written off where there are not sufficient funds in the estate to repay the overpayment.
In all cases of write off, should new information come to my Department, or a person’s circumstances change, then the debt will be written back and recovery pursued as normal.
A structured debt management policy in line with normal good practice in recovery of overpayments operates within my Department, including yearly statements issued to customers of outstanding overpayments.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
