Recovery of social welfare overpayments

Information

In the event that you have been overpaid a social welfare benefit or entitlement in Ireland, the Department of Social and Family Affairs (responsible in Ireland for payment of social welfare benefits) will get in touch with you. Overpayments may occur if an extra payment of an allowance, pension, assistance or any other benefit is made to you by the Department.

If you have been overpaid, the Department will inform you of:

• the reason(s) for the overpayment
• the amount involved

and

• the way the Department proposes to recover the amount that has been overpaid.

If you or your spouse or partner are getting a means tested social welfare payment and save a portion of this payment each week, these savings as well as savings from most other sources will be taken into account as part of your means. It is important to notify the Department of Social and Family Affairs of these savings to avoid an overpayment and subsequent claw-back of the overpayment.

The liability to repay overpayments may continue to exist after your death. Your personal representatives may be asked to repay the amounts owed from your estate.

In general, social welfare overpayments on a large scale rarely occur. However, a significant overpayment occurred at the end of 2004. On 30 December 2004, recipients of the Retirement Pension, Carer's Allowance, Invalidity Pension and One Parent Family Payment received twice the normal rate. This money was then recouped by the Department during the first week of January 2005.

Rules

Repaying the overpayment

The Department can ask you to repay the overpayment by:

• Making a single payment to repay the full overpayment
• Making weekly or monthly cash repayments until the overpayment is paid off
• If you are still receiving a social welfare payment, by deductions from your weekly payment (and by withholding any arrears of payment that may be due to you.

When deciding the rate of repayment, the Department will look at the following factors:

• Your ability to repay
• Any facts or circumstances relevant to the question of repayment that you have raised
• The amount of the overpayment and the circumstances in which it arose.

If you cannot afford the repay the overpayment

If you cannot afford to repay the amount you were overpaid, the repayment may be reduced, deferred or suspended. If your circumstances subsequently improve to the extent that you are able to afford the repayment, you will be required to repay the amount owed at a rate you can afford. Failure to repay social welfare overpayments in Ireland may result in prosecution by the Department of Social and Family Affairs through the courts system.

When is repayment reduced or cancelled?

Repayment of an overpayment may be reduced or cancelled because:

• The Department of Social and Family Affairs failed to act within a reasonable period of time on information that was provided by you or on your behalf
• The Department made an error - this only applies when you could not reasonably be expected to have been aware of the Department's error.

If you think that the Department has made an error, you should bring the matter to the Department's attention as soon as possible.

What if you could have got paid under a different scheme

If you received payments that you were not entitled to under one social welfare scheme, but would have been entitled to payments under another scheme, this will be taken into consideration in deciding how much you have to repay.

How to apply

The Department of Social and Family Affairs have produced a Code of Practice on the recovery of overpayments. This Code of Practice also applies to the overpayment of Supplementary Welfare Allowance by the Health Service Executive (HSE) Areas.

This Code of Practice is available from your local social welfare office.