THE DEPARTMENT OF Social Protection is using Facebook to catch people lying about their relationship status to claim single parent benefits.
The Sunday Business Post has learned that officials from the department are checking the profiles of people claiming single parent benefits to see if their relationship status on Facebook is different to the one they claim.
One woman told the Sunday Business Post:
“A man from the department came to my door with a printout of my page . He wanted to know whether I was living with anyone.”
A spokesperson for the department said that the use of Facebook was not “systematic”.
“Department of Social Protection staff will occasionally refer to sites to follow up on reports from members of the public referring to various sites.”
Data protection law can preclude government departments from collecting personal data.
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