THE COST OF incorrect State payments to people living in Direct Provision over a six-year period is valued at less than €6,000, figures obtained by The Journal show.

The Department of Social Protection said at the end of May that it would not recoup overpayments wrongly made to asylum seekers because a system of means-testing the Daily Expenses Allowance had not been introduced yet.

Income testing of the payment, a weekly allowance for people who have applied for international protection in Ireland, began last month on foot of a recommendation by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

An audit by the spending watchdog from 2022 to 2023 found that the Department of Social Protection was not means-testing claimants as required by legislation.

It partly attributed this to the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which it said impacted the Department’s ability to operate normal, planned controls over its schemes in 2022.

The audit said that the value of “irregular payments” could not be established because there was no income testing of the Daily Expenses Allowance in place.

A ministerial brief given to Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys in April also stated that around 35% of adults who received the Daily Expenses Allowance were in paid employment, and that income testing could save €10.8 million per year.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that in the six years before means-testing was introduced, the Department of Social Protection identified just ten instances where the Daily Expenses Allowance was overpaid.

Three overpayments totalling €2,661.80 were made in 2018, all of which was eventually recovered by the Department.

Another four overpayments totalling €8,436.35 were made in 2022, of which €4,244.05 was later recovered by the Department.

Three more overpayments totalling €8,925.50 were made in 2023, of which €7,503.10 was also recovered.

The entire value of overpayments over the six years amounted to €19,004.95, with €5,614.70 of that total not recovered by the Department.

A spokesperson told The Journal that all cases involved “official error” by the department.

Since the Government began income testing the Daily Expense Allowance, those who receive it but are employed and earn more than €125 a week have their level of payment reduced.

The allowance is set at a rate of €38.80 per week for an adult and €29.80 per week for a child at the time.

An additional €75 per week is paid to people who have not yet been offered accommodation, including those who have been living homeless in tents in Dublin city.

Legislation requires the Department of Social Protection to carry out a means assessment of those receiving the allowance after 12 weeks, and to reduce or stop the payment if the person who is given the payment has had any increase in means.

Before 2022, when Ireland received tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and a record number of people seeking asylum, claims for the Daily Expenses Allowance was normally are reviewed after eight to ten months.

The payment was originally intended only for those living in a Direct Provision centres, but the Department of Social Protection has since said it is no longer possible to enforce this “due to the unprecedented increase in applicants” who have arrived since 2022. 

Justice Minister Helen McEntee claimed that the new system of means testing would ensure a fair system existed whereby asylum seekers provide for themselves when they are able to do so..

“If a person is working and a person has the means to provide themselves, to fund themselves, to house themselves, then they shouldn’t be getting higher level of State intervention or funding, and that applies to anybody in this country,” she said.

However, the Chief Executive of the migrant rights centre Nasc, Fiona Hurley, also warned that the measure would impact those already living in poverty.

“We know that the rates of poverty amongst people living in Direct Provision are quite high, and people may not realise that people living in Direct Provision don’t receive Child Allowance so this cut to payments will have a very significant impact on families,” she told RTÉ.