The Minister for Social Protection has confirmed that over 100,000 people in Ireland have been overpaid social welfare and must pay it back to the Department of Social Protection
Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary(Image: Collins)
Thousands of people across Ireland are expected to pay back social welfare after being overpaid.
The Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary has said that those who received more money than they were eligible for have a “liability to refund the overpayment”.
In 2024, a reported total of 115,943 people received a combined €157.5m more than they were entitled to.
Speaking in the Dail, Mr Calleary said: “The Department’s anti-fraud and control measures are designed to prevent and detect fraud, ensure effective oversight of schemes, pursue the prosecution of offenders where appropriate and recover any overpaid entitlements identified.
“Persons who have been overpaid social welfare have a liability to refund the overpayment as they have been in receipt of a payment to which they were not entitled.
“Overpayments of social welfare entitlements can occur where a person provides false or misleading information in their application or through error on the part of either the claimant or the Department.”
He added: “Where we find suspected fraudulent activity, each individual case is examined and the Department decides on a relevant course of action, up to and including prosecution, if so warranted.”
It comes as this week, over a million social welfare recipients received a Christmas bonus.
You are paid a Christmas Bonus if you are getting:
- Back to Education Allowance – people coming from jobseeker’s payments need to be getting the Allowance for at least 12 months (312 days), but you may be able to use your time on your jobseeker’s payment to help you qualify.
- Back to Work Enterprise Allowance – people coming from jobseeker’s payments need to be getting the Allowance for at least 12 months (312 days), but you may be able to use time on jobseeker’s payment to help you qualify
- Back to Work Family Dividend
- Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds
- Blind Pension
- Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Benefit (including half-rate Carer’s Allowance)
- Community Employment
- Deserted Wife’s Allowance and Deserted Wife’s Benefit
- Daily Expenses Allowance for 12 months or more
- Disability Allowance
- Disablement Benefit
- Domiciliary Care Allowance
- Farm Assist
- Guardian’s Payment (Contributory) and (Non-Contributory)
- Illness Benefit for 12 months or more
- Invalidity Pension
- Job Initiative Scheme
- Jobseeker’s Allowance for 12 months (312 days or more)
- Jobseeker’s Transitional payment
- Magdalene Commission Scheme
- Death Benefit Scheme (under the Occupational Injuries Scheme)
- One-Parent Family Payment
- Partial Capacity Benefit
- Rural Social Scheme
- State Pension (Contributory) and State Pension (Non-Contributory)
- Supplementary Welfare Allowance for 12 months (364 days or more)
- Tús
- Bereaved Partner’s Pension (Contributory) and (Non-Contributory)
- Work Placement Experience Programme (if your primary payment is a qualifying social welfare payment)
You will get a Christmas Bonus if you are getting a VTOS or Youthreach training allowance for at least 12 months. If you were getting a qualifying payment (see list above) immediately before your training allowance, you can combine this time to reach 12 months.
