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18 Jul 11
15:26
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Date Joined:
05 Jan 10
PPS tally sparks fear of massive welfare fraud
alert: 7.2m numbers for just 4.6m people
THE Government is being urged to crack down on social welfare fraud after figures showed there were 2.6 million more PPS numbers than people in the State.
New statistics show there are 7.2 million PPS numbers on issue while the population is just 4.58 million.
Now Social Protection Minister Joan Burton is being asked to carry out an audit of the PPS system in conjunction with her plan to bring in a new identity card system.
Fianna Fail spokesman on Environment, Community and Local Government Niall Collins said it had a potential for incidents of identity theft or fraud in the social welfare system and the wider economy.
The figure of 7.2 million PPS numbers was revealed at the Oireachtas Environment Committee by Environment Minister Phil Hogan during a discussion on the Electoral Amendment Bill. "This is immediately worrying as the Census showed the population stood at just under 4.6 million, a difference of more than 2.6 million," Mr Collins said.
"I would have very serious concerns about the possibility of fraud arising from this."
"Abuse or criminal activity by people using duplicate PPS numbers or numbers belonging to people who may have died could cost the State hugely in terms of social welfare fraud for example," Mr Collins said.
"There's also the concern around identity theft."
Minister Joan Burton is moving ahead with the introduction of a new identity card "but in conjunction with that I believe the Government should carry out an audit of the PPS number system".
"The Government must ensure that PPS numbers belonging to those no longer resident in the State, or who have deceased, are no longer active or in circulation," Mr Collins added.
He would discuss the issue with party colleague Barry Cowen, spokesman on social protection, and would also raise it with ministers Burton and Hogan.
Ms Burton has said that one of the key priorities for her department will be "a concerted and active" policing of the hidden economy sector where there was a prevalence of social welfare fraud and abuse.
Both the Department of Social Protection and Revenue had identified the risk inherent in hidden economy activity as being a key corporate priority to be tackled this year and plans have been devised to combat both tax non-compliance and social welfare fraud, Ms Burton said.
Joint Investigation Units (JIUs) between Revenue, the Department of Social Protection and the National Employment Rights Authority will play a key role in targeting particular types of hidden economy activity in the employed sectors.
These will include the construction and hospitality sectors, she added.
A "strategic fraud and control plan" to crack down on fraud and abuse of the social welfare system has also been put in place in her department
alert: 7.2m numbers for just 4.6m people
THE Government is being urged to crack down on social welfare fraud after figures showed there were 2.6 million more PPS numbers than people in the State.
New statistics show there are 7.2 million PPS numbers on issue while the population is just 4.58 million.
Now Social Protection Minister Joan Burton is being asked to carry out an audit of the PPS system in conjunction with her plan to bring in a new identity card system.
Fianna Fail spokesman on Environment, Community and Local Government Niall Collins said it had a potential for incidents of identity theft or fraud in the social welfare system and the wider economy.
The figure of 7.2 million PPS numbers was revealed at the Oireachtas Environment Committee by Environment Minister Phil Hogan during a discussion on the Electoral Amendment Bill. "This is immediately worrying as the Census showed the population stood at just under 4.6 million, a difference of more than 2.6 million," Mr Collins said.
"I would have very serious concerns about the possibility of fraud arising from this."
"Abuse or criminal activity by people using duplicate PPS numbers or numbers belonging to people who may have died could cost the State hugely in terms of social welfare fraud for example," Mr Collins said.
"There's also the concern around identity theft."
Minister Joan Burton is moving ahead with the introduction of a new identity card "but in conjunction with that I believe the Government should carry out an audit of the PPS number system".
"The Government must ensure that PPS numbers belonging to those no longer resident in the State, or who have deceased, are no longer active or in circulation," Mr Collins added.
He would discuss the issue with party colleague Barry Cowen, spokesman on social protection, and would also raise it with ministers Burton and Hogan.
Ms Burton has said that one of the key priorities for her department will be "a concerted and active" policing of the hidden economy sector where there was a prevalence of social welfare fraud and abuse.
Both the Department of Social Protection and Revenue had identified the risk inherent in hidden economy activity as being a key corporate priority to be tackled this year and plans have been devised to combat both tax non-compliance and social welfare fraud, Ms Burton said.
Joint Investigation Units (JIUs) between Revenue, the Department of Social Protection and the National Employment Rights Authority will play a key role in targeting particular types of hidden economy activity in the employed sectors.
These will include the construction and hospitality sectors, she added.
A "strategic fraud and control plan" to crack down on fraud and abuse of the social welfare system has also been put in place in her department
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Replies: 26
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I have/had 2 in the past. I worked for a state body for my first job and they issued me with one, I already had one weeks before that..
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my friend is a social welfare inspector and the stories he told me would make the hair on your head stand up...this country is been raped blind and its not only by our own....
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Anyone that has ever worked in Ireland and no longer lives there will have a PPS number. Plenty of dead people included there too I should think. Still, it's a large discrepancy.
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Thankfully Niall Soldier of Destiny is on the case.
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Yes TF and the Soldiers were on the case for the 15 years they were in power. Would guess quite supporters of the soldiers are playing the system.
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According to MeHall and his soldiers, they are the only ones who can save us Santry.
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This to me smells like govt propaganda. Something on the front of the Sunday Indo yesterday caught my eye, the govt want to end the dole lifestyle ?? What lifestyle have the vast vast majority people on the bloody dole? I think what they are really getting people ready for is a massive cut across the board in terms of govt workers and benefits and what they are trying to is make us think they are doing us a favour. We all hear about the man in Donegal with 7 kids earning more from being on the dole than he would do if he worked and the Nigerian woman who has her home for free and heated. But these are an exception rather than the norm and these people are certainly not the reason the country is in such a mess.
The facts o'the matter are the vast majority of people on the dole have not got 2 cents to rub together never mind have a lifestyle from it, while the people who have got us into this mess are free to work it the same job they've worked in or retire with fat cat pensions. I also think we're well on track to have a very right winged country in the near future. |
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rocket, certain parts of dublin now starting to look like africa ...when africans started to come into ireland first it was young women having their babys and getting passports under the good friday agreement..now there are huge families of them mostly with young kids ...were are these people going to get work ... weather we like it or not these are long term welfare cases ...as a right they have access to everything as asylum seekers or refugees ...massive amount of fraud going on ...my nephew told us a story recently of his friend who is from africa ..he is in his lates 20s and his mother only recently stopped claiming child benifit for him ..the poor guy was so embarrassed ...this is a serious situation and if not tackled will prove to be one of the reason we will find it diffecult to make economic progress...lots of these africans have no possible way of entering ireland except through britain...
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I have a friend who runs a rural Post Office (within his shop). I met him recently (in the wake of the Prime Time Special on Disability and Carer Allowance )and he told me that, of the 15 people claiming the allowance in his shop, he and his 2 staff would consider only 3 of the claimants to be deserving of the payment. If I had read that opinion on here I wouldn't have believed it. My friend is not given to exaggeration.
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Lived in Dublin until very recently, and never did i think i was in Africa, these people are easy to blame, they are vulnerable without any voice to speak for them. There is no doubt fruad going on in the system, that's a given but it's going on in every welfare system in the world, but it's not bringing these countries to it's knees, how much of the billions of debt we have accumulated came from African people living here? Because these people are some of the first to be blamed for the ills of our country.
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Vote workrider
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workrider Date Joined: 29 Jun 02
rocket, certain parts of dublin now starting to look like africa ... Ever been to Kilburn ? |
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i blame the goverment rocket ...we've made it to easy to come here and claim benifits its not the people ho come here and claim that i blame ...after all us irish are good at that as well just look at the welfare system in england ...reb at least in kilburn they are british and have every right to be there ...
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Where in Dublin?
I lived in Birmingham and nothing in Dublin would even come close, not that I'm saying it's a bad thing either. Completely agree with RF, we love a scapegoat and these one's are easy one's. |
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workrider ...reb at least in kilburn they are british and have every right to be there ...
Ah yes, McGovern's Pub, June 1990, watching England v West Germany on TV under display of 23 flags of the competing nations on the ceiling above. Disco upstairs afterwards. 2 tricolors behind the bar. One was Irish. |
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Surprised how right winged your views are WR
 Plenty of Irish claimed benefits fraudulently in the UK in the 80's and we seem to forget about ourselves. We could remove every African from Ireland and get them to pay back every red cent they received and we would still be in bits. Let them bring in the 20% cuts across the boards but let's not have the smoke and mirror campaign where they are trying get public to believe they are doing us a favor. |
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How is not approving of fraudulent welfare claims being right wing??????????????
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the wage bill for house etc for these people is nearly a billion euro a year...i belive that every human being is entitled to be protected from been exploited by others in any shape or form ..thats doesent mean i cant have an opinion regarding what i consider to be wholescale fraud....most of these people PAY to be brought here ..people traffickers are not known for free rides ....its now starting to emerge that people are brought into europe and pay these people a portion of what they recive in handouts from whatever country they arrive in ..so in actual fact we are now becoming the new SLAVE providers....
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rocket if you read my reply you would have seen that i agree re us irish and benifit fraud....
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A billion euro to house the Africans, are you mental? Do you have a link for this outlandish claim WR?
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Workriders getting mixed up its the travellers who are costing a Billion...probably more because there breeding so fast for all the benefits ...the foreigners are only trotting after the travellers i'm afraid...there must have been a documentry on travellers shown in africa and they are coming for the Dole lifestyle..10 kids 100,000 per annum no questions..free house..free this free that...if anyone opens their mouth start on about discrimination...the only people been discriminated against in reland are the law abiding and the working!!
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not just the africans rocket ALL ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES ....I THINK THE LAST TIME IT WAS BROUGHT UP IN THE DAIL WAS DURING BERTIES TIME...no matter what its costing its something we cant afford just now ..lots of money been made by foreign mafia ....if you dont ant to se this thats fine ..everyone is entitled to their opinion and yous is yours ...having worked hard all my life and payed my dues as wells as my taxes i think i'm entitled to voice my concern about a country i love ...i dont have the socialist outlook that says we are all same .. some of us have sweated blood and guts trying to bring up our children and give them a good life ..yet i see money been giving to people who are economic refugees and it makes my blood boil.. the same money thats needed to sustain hospitals schools etc etc...is been taken out of the country by these conmen ..and surprise surprise i dont think its right..anyone from africa or anywere else in the world who genuinely need a helping hand to save them from torture etc are more than welcome here ..but economic refugees taking the money thats needed for our children ..i say no ....
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Chief Mongosuto says he's having a great time here. He also says f***ing is his sport. He can go to Club M and have a beano.
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timberman , would u have liked to have been born a traveller?
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shocking figures , i wonder how many dole cheques our robo is claiming
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Concentrate on paying those credit card debts Sammy
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