A new study has revealed that fifty social welfare cheats occur in Ireland every day. A report from January 2015 until mid April 2015 has revealed that 5,233 tip offs were made to the Department of Social Protection in relation to fraudulent claims being made by members of the public. There were 21,000 fraudulent claims made last year and most of these tip offs were anonymous. Tax payers were saved €68.1 million last year due to the cessation of fraudulent payments. The Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, has frequently asked members of the public to report people who are committing welfare fraud, in order to reduce the welfare bill. Mattie McGrath Tipperary South Independent TD said ‘Nobody supports any kind of fraud and the taxpayer certainly doesn’t like to see anyone getting away with it. Ultimately, they are the ones paying for it through their taxes.’
‘Also it is not fair to those who are on welfare payments. They are seeing others defrauding while the numbers of community welfare offices is being reduced and they can’t get help with receiving their entitlements.’ There has been an increase in the elderly in recent years which require old age pensions, and there has also been an increase in the number of births, which has increased the number of people in receipt of child support payments.
Ms Burton said ‘No matter who you are, you are going to be in receipt of state financial support at some stage of your life. From having your children to receiving a pension to losing your job at some point you are likely to receive social support’. There were almost €2 million applications under different schemes made to the Department of Social Welfare last year, which is almost half of the population, and in the coming years that figure is bound to rise.
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