The link between social protection and illicit trade
Brian Kearney is a manager with the Special Investigation Unit, in the Department of Social Protection in the Cork, Kerry and Limerick region. At the Shelflife conference 'Ireland's Illicit Trade - The €1 Billion Fraud' he talked about why social protection is involved in the shadow economy.
Print15 November 2013
Brian Kearney began by commenting on the fact that he had been asked at the conference how the Department of Social Protection was involved in illicit trade. He went on to explain that Social Protection is invariably linked with illicit trade as most illegal traders are usually claiming social benefits.
"Social welfare is big business", said Kearney. Some of the figures he outlined include:
- €20 billion on expenditure
- 1.4 million weekly payments
- 87 million payments in 2012
- 2 million applications made in 2012
- 8.4 million telephone calls answered
- 1 million control reviews carried out
- 7,200 staff at 470 locations
The role of the Special Investigation Unit is to prevent and detect social welfare fraud. There are 89 social welfare inspectors working exclusively on fraud countrywide. "The black, shadowm grey, hidden, informal – whatever you want to call it – economy" is estimated to cost 2.4% to 4.1% of the social welfare budget.
Multi-agency approach
The Social Protection Department take a multi-agency approach with Revenue, Gardaí, GNIB, NERA, National Transport Authority, County Councils, corporations and so on.
Kearney mentioned the ‘Anti-Fraud Initiative 2011 -2013, which states "social welfare fraud undermines public confidence in the entire system as well as being unfair to other recipients of social welfare payments, and taxpayers and businesses that run on a legitimate basis." He also mentioned some of the roles the SIU are involved in such as targeted hidden economy projects, multi agency road checks, identity fraud checks, data matching and responding to good citizen reports. Kearney put a strong focus on working collaboratively, data sharing, building relationships and networks and ensuring a positive public perception.
Related Articles
A love letter to the grocery retail industry →
Why use a recruitment agency? →
‘Where is the government’s support for the retail industry?’ →
Fans 0
Followers