Have you received a Pandemic Employment Payment claim in error? Or you have not been able to prove your eligibility?
Be careful! The Department of Social Protection is after you. The Government is seeking the return of almost €34m which was wrongly claimed in Pandemic Unemployment Payments (PUP) at the height of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The Department of Social Protection told RTÉ's This Week programme that, up to the end of July, just over 18,700 Pandemic Unemployment Payment over-payments were recorded to a value of €46.5m.
In total some €12.6m has been repaid, with approximately 10,700 of these over-payments having been repaid in full. However, $33.9 million has still not been repaid. The Department stated that it is still working to recover all past-due overpayments.
The Department of Social Protection may not have been notified that a claimant had returned to work, which is one of several reasons why overpayments can occur.
However, the Department has occasionally found bogus Pandemic Unemployment Payment claims.
The responsibility of looking into and identifying social benefit fraud has been given to a team of 120 officers, including 20 garda and one sergeant.
The Department issued a statement in which it stated: "Where we discover potential fraudulent claims, we pursue those who violate to guarantee the money are recovered and the most serious cases are brought to the Courts' attention."
Investigations carried out largely by the Department's Special Investigation Unit and garda seconded to the Special Investigation Unit lead to the identification of cases that are appropriate for prosecution.
The Department claimed that it now has many cases in the courts that are pending prosecution, and that four PUP cases have so far been resolved with convictions obtained in each of them.
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