Social welfare fraud?

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strawberry1990

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Hi

Myself andy partner are worried we may have committed social welfare fraud.

I work while.my partner claims a means tested social welfare payment for himself me and our kids.

He received a letter to say that an inspector would be coming to our home and he would like 3 months bank statements from both our banks and my last three payslips.

While looking over finances we now think that we have been overpaid social welfare as my hours have been a bit all over the place due to people leaving work and me covering there hours and generally my hours have been increased since we last informed social welfare. It was never a steady increase in hours but we now think that we would have been overpaid and are now worried about prosecution.

Also my partner has been receiving job seekers for about three years now and he isn't sure if he told them when I changed my job two years ago but the hours were the same as the last job so the means test would of been the same.

I'm worried because we didn't let them know about the change in circumstances and my higher payments that it looks like we are committing fraud.

What would be the outcome of this, I'm extremely stressed about this and I just want it sorted out without prosecution.

Also the day after they sent a letter out my partner received a message from a job he applied for in December and has an interview on Monday but more of a training interview and it seems he has the job so it looks as though he is going be closing his social welfare claim but I'm worried that looks suspicious as we just received a letter so not sure how to go about this.

Any advice appreciated
 
www.oireachtas.ie

Social Welfare Payments

Social Welfare Payments Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 November 2023
www.oireachtas.ie

I doubt that you will be prosecuted.
You basically misunderstood the complicated means tesing rules.
Social Protection will recover the overpayment by taking payments from your future Social Protection payments or your wages.
 
Answer the questions truthfully but don’t volunteer more than you are asked for. Give them the documents they request but no more.

Overpayment due to client error is very common. It will simply be deducted from future payments. There is zero risk of prosecution in your type of case.

You can negotiate on the repayment schedule. It is the Department of Social Protection so they are not trying to force you into temporary poverty.


I know of someone with a €10k overpayment repaying €50 a month. It might not be paid off in her lifetime.
 
If it turns out that there was an overpayment and you are required to repay it then this may be of interest:

Social welfare overpayments

The Department of Social Protection recoups overpayments of social welfare benefits and entitlements. Find out how overpayments are collected
www.citizensinformation.ie www.citizensinformation.ie
Hopefully the other posters' comments above have put your mind to rest somewhat.
 
Thank so much for the replies, I'm willing to pay whatever overpayment out of my wages every week, I would like it cleared as quickly as possible, I'm just worried about the fact that he didn't let them know when I switched jobs so it may look criminal but hopefully they will understand and allow us to pay back anything without prosecution.
 
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