If you’re a cheat, we have the technology to track you down
THE Department of Social Protection is using sophisticated software to ID potential welfare cheats.
By using the advanced technology to analyse a wide range of personal data, the department is even able to predict who the likely fraudsters are, according to the Assistant Secretary at the Department of Social Protection Kathleen Stack.
‘We have a number of predictive analytics models that we use, so we take all the data that we have and we look at a number of variables that feed into that data and, based on that, we would identify a number of high-risk cases, but they could be spread all over the country.
‘There could be 15 or 20 variables that you could be looking at so it will identify somebody who might be in the top percentile of those variables, they could be anywhere, they could be in Tralee or Donegal or Dublin so geography isn’t necessarily a factor,’ Ms Stack said.
Similar software is being used by the Revenue Commissioners to identify tax dodgers.
The department recently introduced facial recognition software and it is already paying dividend; in February, Adrian Vaduva was sentenced three years in jail for welfare fraud after the software found he had been claiming benefits for two people. Last month, Minister Varadkar launched his Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All campaign, with the help of Ms Stack, and he urged members of the public to report suspected cases of welfare fraud. He also praised the rise in calls to the hotline, in the immediate aftermath of the campaign. However, Ms Stack explained that not all reports of welfare fraud turn out to be true. Often the person complained against may be doing nothing wrong. She said: ‘So, you might be entitled to work part-time and claim social welfare for the rest of the week and sometimes if your neighbour reports you for that they may not know the ins and outs of the scheme so it’s important to say that as well. ‘I suppose that’s why we have to investigate each of them to make sure there is grounds there to trigger an investigation.’ The departments does not track the amount of savings directly made from tip-offs. But she said: ‘We do a little bit of internal checking ourselves and what we would say is roughly one in three results in a payment being reduced or terminated.’