{"id":159322,"date":"2025-11-02T20:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/159322\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T20:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:27:09","slug":"state-writes-off-more-than-e15m-in-incorrect-social-welfare-payments-across-two-years-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/159322\/","title":{"rendered":"State writes off more than \u20ac15m in incorrect social welfare payments across two years \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The taxpayer has been left to foot the bill for more than \u20ac15 million worth of incorrect welfare payments <\/a>over the past two years.<\/p>\n

A total of \u20ac7.97 million in benefits were written off last year, up more than \u20ac300,000 on the equivalent figure of \u20ac7.64 million from 2023.<\/p>\n

The Department of Social Protection<\/a> said overpayments of welfare were written off \u2013 either partially or in full \u2013 when there was \u201cno prospect of future recovery\u201d of the cash.<\/p>\n

It stated that 75 per cent of these payments related to deceased individuals, while other overpayments of less than \u20ac100 were deemed uneconomical to pursue.<\/p>\n

The department said that when a write-off took place, it could be re-examined if the financial circumstances of the person involved improved.<\/p>\n

An information note stated: \u201c[We operate] a structured debt management policy in line with normal good practice in recovery of overpayments, including yearly statements issued to customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data released under Freedom of Information legislation <\/a>show that nearly \u20ac3.1 million of the money written off last year related to the non-contributory State pension.<\/p>\n

A further \u20ac1.44 million was deemed irrecoverable from the contributory State pension as well as about \u20ac841,000 in illness benefits.<\/p>\n

Other payments with six-figure write-offs included invalidity pensions, jobseeker\u2019s benefit, pensions for widows or widowers, and one-parent family payments.<\/p>\n

The department said that during the same period of 2023 and 2024, there were welfare overpayments of \u20ac273 million.<\/p>\n

There was a sharp increase in overpayments last year, \u20ac157.5 million as compared to a 12-month figure of \u20ac115.8 million in 2023.<\/p>\n

The department said these could occur when false or misleading information was provided by an individual seeking a benefit payment. It added that overpayments could also be caused by error, either on behalf of the applicant or by the department itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersons 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,\u201d stated an information note.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverpayments in any given year represent less than 0.5 per cent of total expenditure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The highest overpayments last year were recorded on the pandemic unemployment payment, the state pension, and jobseeker\u2019s allowance.<\/p>\n

The department stated that in 2023, it had recovered more than \u20ac87 million in overpaid welfare payments.<\/p>\n

Last year, that figure rose to just over \u20ac100 million, according to the records.<\/p>\n

A note said: \u201cWhere an overpayment occurs, the department seeks to recover the full value of the overpayment.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the potential impact of overpayment recovery on customers with limited means, appropriate controls are required to ensure fairness and reasonableness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department stated that if a person was still receiving a welfare payment, deductions of up to 15 per cent were the norm.<\/p>\n

If the individual was now in full-time employment but declined to repay the money, the department said they would consider making \u201can attachment of earnings order\u201d for automatic deductions from a bank account.<\/p>\n

The department said it would always work with people to ensure there was no \u201cundue financial hardship\u201d in any plan for recoupment of cash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The taxpayer has been left to foot the bill for more than \u20ac15 million worth of incorrect welfare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,20812,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-159322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-department-of-social-protection","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115481991220615051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}