€75 million worth of social welfare payments were reclaimed from people last year, after they got money they weren’t entitled to.
The Department of Social Protection launched over 13,000 investigations into welfare fraud in 2020.
The department got over 20,700 reports of social welfare fraud last year.
After these allegations were filtered, 13,059 were referred for investigation.
Money was reclaimed from over 87,000 people and the total value of the payments was €75.2 million,
This included €6.5 million in pandemic unemployment payments, which are related to the Covid crisis.
Over €12 million in jobseeker’s allowance payments were reclaimed.
Jason O’Sullivan, the principal and founder of JOS Solicitors, says the problem has got worse due to the Covid crisis.
73 people appeared in court last year for social welfare fraud, and 67 were convicted.
51 people were found guilty of fraud relating to jobseekers’ allowance but although 32 were fined, none were jailed.
