The Director of Social Justice Ireland has said that Social Welfare fraud cannot be tolerated.
Commenting on new figures released by the Department of Social Welfare, which showed that it had stopped just over 12% of non-resident welfare claims because they were bogus in a move that resulted in a €6 million saving to the exchequer, Fr Sean Healy said that the fact that the Department has had to cut its budget and at the same time it is spending is being inflated by bogus claims, is despicable.
Fr Healy said that such fraud takes place against a background of increased poverty in Ireland.
Last year one in six people in Ireland were living in poverty even though the poverty line fell.
He said that he found it hard to support any sort of amnesty for welfare fraud and he felt that such fraud was akin to tax evasion.
“We should aim to build a society where everyone has enough money to live life with dignity but at the same time we should not be tolerating people who are ripping off the system.”
He added, “If people were convinced that the system is not been ripped off, people would accept such a new society. We need a public ethic that people will be honest with the system.”
Fr Healy cautioned against taking the Department of Social Welfare figures at face value and he said that welfare fraud might not be as widespread as it may appear in the media.
“Sometimes the Department figures may give the impression that welfare fraud is more widespread as 60% of all such fraud can be the result of administrative mistakes when assessing ones entitlement.”