The Minister for Social and Family Affairs has announced a crackdown on social welfare fraud targeting Irish and foreign workers who continue to claim the dole despite no longer living or working in Ireland.
Ms Hanafin said today that claimants will have to sign on at post offices weekly, rather than have the payments made automatically to them.
Speaking on RTÉ's
Morning Ireland, Ms Hanafin said the Department had made an immediate saving of around €1.5 million in its investigation of some 2,000 people or about 10 per cent of those on the Live Register who were not currently living in Ireland or seeking work here.
She said that across the scheme of social welfare payments, officials were targeting savings of between €530m to €540 million.
The Minister said with around 7,500 people signing on to the Live Register every week who need to get their money efficiently, officials had to ensure that only people who were entitled to social welfare were getting the money.
Under the current monitoring and investigation process by around 600 Department officials, Ms Hanafin said that those suspected of continuing to claim social welfare in Ireland, but who have subsequently left the country, could be prosecuted under European Union welfare rules.
Currently, those claiming benefits must sign on at their local social welfare office once a month, though payments are made weekly at post offices, or directly into bank accounts.
Now, payments will have to be collected weekly from post offices.
If the payment is not collected within the week it will be cancelled and the claimant will have to go to their Social Welfare Office to get it back.
Ms Hanafin denied that this move would lead to stigmatizing claimants, saying there would be no special dole queues and people could choose the post office they wanted to collect their money from.