Fraud Jobseeker’s Allowance Payments Cost A Huge €14 Million Last Year

A new advertising campaign aimed at encouraging people to report any knowledge of fraud social welfare claims is launching today.

Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar will be there to launch the campaign, and told The Journal that the public play an vital role in supporting anti-fraud activities, with worried citizens making 19,000 reports of individual cases last year.

It's believed that suspected fraud overpayments of Jobseeker’s Allowance cost €14 million in 2016 alone.

The new advertising campaign asks questions such as "would you report a welfare cheat?"

Suspected fraud claims for other benefits also hit high numbers, with 2016 seeing overpayments of an estimated €1.2 million for disability allowance, and €998,000 for illness benefit.

In order to prevent fraudulent claims, the Department of Social Protection has initiated new identity and analytics software and other intelligence systems as well as a special investigative unit.