€20m in child benefits sent abroad

The Public Accounts Committee has heard that €20m in child benefit payments are being sent to support children living abroad.

Department of Social and Family Affairs Secretary General Bernadette Lacey said it was supporting 10,000 children abroad and this would continue until the child is 18 years of age provided that one parent is living and working in Ireland.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0312/welfare.html

€4.5m in childcare allowance for children living abroad

The Government paid €4.5m in childcare allowances for children living outside of Ireland last year, new figures reveal.

The overseas Early Childcare Supplement payments quadrupled between 2007 and 2008 from €1.1m to €4.5m, the Department of Social and Family Affairs has confirmed.

This year, non-resident children are expected to account for €7m of the childcare payments because a massive backlog of arrears is slowly being cleared.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Family Affairs said the claims relating to children residing outside of Ireland are complex because it is necessary to cross-check details with European authorities. Hence, significant backlogs and delays have occurred.

When the childcare payment was launched in 2006, it emerged that children of migrant workers who are resident in their home country were entitled to the annual €1,000 payment, even though it was designed to help spefically with childcare costs.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/state-paid-836445m-for-children-living-abroad-1658189.html

€238m saved in Welfare fraud clampdown

Welfare payments of almost €238m have been saved through anti-fraud and control measures in the first six months of this year, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin said today.

Following a review into social welfare fraud, it was found that some people claiming unemplyment benefit were in fact working; people who were claiming to be lone parents had gotten married; and medical evidence showed that some people claiming to be too ill to work could in fact work.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0808/welfare.html

Blitz on benefits catches out 5,000 non-Irish families

CHILD benefit payments to almost 5,000 non-Irish families have been suspended in a major crackdown on welfare fraud.
The Department of Social and Family Affairs stopped the payments after it reviewed its control policy for the scheme, the Irish Independent has learned.
It emerged earlier this year that a new system had been introduced whereby non-Irish EU nationals in receipt of child welfare were required to prove that they were still resident or working in Ireland.
In order to prove that they were still in the country, the department sent letters to the non-Irish EU child benefit recipients. The letters then had to be returned within 21 days with proof that the children were still living in Ireland.
Between November 2007 and April 2008, 27,840 letters were sent out in total. Of that number, 4,960 were not returned with proof of residency or employment and payment was suspended.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/blitz-on-benefits-catches-out-5000-1372876.html