Person claimed €30,800 in blind allowance from two offices at same time – audit

An individual claimed blind welfare allowance from two Health Service Executive (HSE) offices at the same time for nearly 10 years, receiving overpayments of more than €30,000, an audit has found.

The internal audit, completed in April 2021, warned that people claiming the payments from different health service areas at the same time had the potential to be “systemic”, recommending a national review of the issue.

Blind welfare allowance is a means tested payment of €61.50 a week, with a further €4.40 per dependent child.

A HSE internal audit found one individual had been paid the allowance from Community Health Organisation (CHO) 7 in Dublin, as well as CHO 4 in Cork, for over 9½ years between late 2007 and September 2019.

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The audit noted the payment from the Dublin office had stopped for a period from 2009 to late 2010. The report said the current systems used by each of the nine CHOs to pay the allowance were not “integrated” together.

The audit calculated the amount that had been overpaid as a result of two offices making the payments to the same individual was €30,820.

“There is no agreement in place between the two areas for the recoupment of the overpayment,” the report said. The person claiming the double payments has since died, it said.

The audit team said the case revealed there was a risk of “financial loss to the organisation due to the non-integration of payment services systems”, as claims made in more than one CHO were not flagged.

The report recommended all CHOs be informed of the risks of multiple payments being made by different offices. It also said a “national review” of all blind welfare allowance payments should be considered, “to ensure that no other duplicate payments” existed.

The audit highlighted another case where an individual claiming the blind welfare allowance had died in May 2016, but cheques for the payment continued to be sent for nearly two years, until March 2018. Some €5,195 had been cashed from the cheques issued after the individual had died, the report said.

The fraud was referred to the Garda, who told the HSE early last year that investigations into the matter were "ongoing".

A further €7,872 was overpaid by the Cork office to three people who were living in nursing homes, making them ineligible for the blind allowance payment.

Separately, another internal audit found a quarter of HSE community healthcare staff in Cork and Kerry had no evidence of completing required child protection training.

The audit, which examined Community Health Organisation 4, which covers Cork and Kerry, found only three-quarters of a sample of staff had completed mandatory training in Children First legislation.

The legislation, which came into effect in late 2017, introduced mandatory reporting requirements for child protection or welfare concerns.

The internal audit examined a sample of 53 staff, and found 26 per cent were not registered as completing online introductory training on the child protection legislation.

Of the 14 staff who were not registered as completing the training, nine were mandated persons under Children First, meaning they were responsible for reporting child protection concerns or alleged abuse identified in the organisation to authorities.