22% of jobseekers' allowance claimants overpaid - C&AG

Almost a quarter of those receiving jobseekers' allowance over the past two years have been overpaid, new data shows.

A new report from the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) outlines a number of social welfare payment issues.

It shows that a survey carried out on 947 jobseekers' allowance payments in 2022 and 2023 found that 21.8% of claimants were being overpaid by an average of 8.3%. Meanwhile, 7.9% of claimants surveyed were being underpaid.

The report also examined the state pension contributory (SPC), and the widows', widowers' and surviving civil partners' contributory pension (WCP).

A survey reviewed 400 SPC claims in payments in February 2023 and found that 3.3% of the SPC claimants were receiving more than they were entitled to.

The value of the gross excess payments was estimated to be 0.9%.

On the other hand, 4.5% of the SPC claimants surveyed were being underpaid, with the underpayments equivalent to 0.5% of scheme expenditure across all claims examined.

When it comes to WCP claimants, the survey shows that 6% of the 200 claims reviewed were receiving more than they were entitled to.

The value of the gross excess payments was estimated to be 1.3% of the scheme expenditure on the sample cases.

2% of the WCP claimants surveyed were being underpaid, with the underpayments equivalent to 0.2% of scheme expenditure across all claims examined.

When an excess payment is identified by the Department, the C&AG report states that a deciding officer will determine on a case-by-case basis how this is to be treated.

It can issue a "current date" decision - meaning future payments are corrected but recovery of any past excess payments is not sought.

Or it can issue a "retrospective" decision - meaning future payments are corrected, and a specific overpayment debt amount is raised for recovery.

Today's report highlights other social welfare payment regularity issues, including issues relating to the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP).

The total PUP scheme overpayments raised as of December 2023 was €55.5m - of which €13m has been recovered.

So far, the Department has cross checked 30 million PUP payments week by week against Revenue records.

It has identified between 50,000 and 60,000 cases where there was an overlap between receipt of PUP and a period of employment.

The Department said almost 6,600 claimants have been contacted to initiate the Department's recovery process as of June this year.

According to the C&AG report, the annual gross expenditure of the Department of Social Protection last year was €25.1 billion.

As such, it states that even low levels of payments in excess of entitlements to welfare can amount to significant losses of public funds.