Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 January 2026
691. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated level of fraud and error in 2025 for jobseeker’s, disability, and child benefit schemes, as reported in his Department’s annual report. [5681/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department is committed to ensuring that only those people who are eligible receive social welfare supports and payments. Under the Compliance and Anti-Fraud Strategy for 2024 – 2028, the Department leverages four pillars (Prevent, Deter, Detect and Account) to ensure that suspected fraud and non-compliance in our welfare system is kept to a minimum.
As part of this approach the Department utilises control surveys to identify the risks within individual schemes and the steps that are necessary to address any control weaknesses identified. Control surveys are targeted surveys of a random sample of claims in payment on selected schemes. The surveys are reported on annually by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG). The outcomes of these surveys are used to calculate the net loss to Government due to fraud/error for the various schemes.
The most recent control survey on Jobseekers Allowance was published in March 2025 which found that the Net Loss to Government was 5.8% of total expenditure on the scheme.
The most recent Disability Allowance survey was published in February 2023 which found that the Net Loss to Government was 5.8% of total expenditure on the scheme.
The most recent Child Benefit survey was published in February 2022 which found that the Net Loss to Government was 1.2% of total expenditure on the scheme.
My Department is committed to publishing two control surveys each year and these are published on gov.ie. The Department analyses the outcomes from control surveys to target and eliminate any areas of risk identified.
I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
