Ireland saves money in child benefit check

The Irish government is to scrutinise more than 150,000 child benefit payments this year for possible fraud, writes The Herald. The benefit is paid to 600,000 mothers, and reports this week suggested it was likely to be taxed or subjected to means test from next year, saving up to €400m.

The Government wants to achieve significant savings on the €2.5bn paid in child benefit, which we are told on its own accounts for nearly 5% of all state spending.

Some ministers favour taxing child benefit, as this would enable mothers to keep some level of payment. Others favour means testing as it would be fairer and produce greater savings.

Another suggestion is that the Government might impose a cut of up to 20% across the board for child benefit next year.

In 2008 87,850 payments were reviewed and, as a result, 5,141 child benefit claims were terminated, saving €47m. "To date in 2009, a total of 88,217 reviews have been undertaken," says the minister. "It is intended to complete in excess of 150,000 reviews in the full year."

Thousands of foreign benefit claimants were investigated by between October 2007 and February 2008. "In a trawl of suspected benefit fraudsters", we are told, 479 non-national cases were found to live permanently outside the State. As a proportion that may not be high, but the investigation was said to have yielded savings of more than €4m for the Exchequer.