Meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform
Wednesday 11th January 2012
Opening statement by
Anne Vaughan, Deputy Secretary, Department of Social Protection
Introduction
Chairman, members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to address you today and to outline the position of the Department of Social Protection in this matter.
In an overall context, the Department of Social Protection has an extensive legal structure to support the sharing of data for the purpose of monitoring the entitlement and payment of benefits. The legislative provisions that allow for the specific sharing of data, with the Revenue Commissioners and other Government Departments and agenciesare contained in section 261 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2005.
In exercising these functions, the Department also operates in accordance with the data protection legislation,as contained in the Data Protection Act, 1988 and Data Protection (Amendment) Act, 2003.
Data exchanges with Revenue Commissioners
One of our primary relationships in relation to data sharing is with the Revenue Commissioners.
In recent years, the Department has improved its bilateral liaison with Revenue through the establishment of a High Level Group at Management Board level, whose main purpose is to deepen the interaction at strategic and operational levels between the organisations. The purpose of the group is to ensure ongoing collaboration and interaction between the two bodies. Both organisationsare working together with a view to aligning expertise and information across their operations. In this context, a number of working groups have been established which are looking at a range of specific issues including that of social welfare abuse and tax compliance.
It is important to emphasise that data exchange operates on a two-way basis between the Revenue Commissionersand the Department and has been ongoing for many years.
Data provided by DSP to Revenue
In terms of information provided by the Department to Revenue, information relating to short-term benefits such as Illness Benefit, Occupational Injury Benefit and Job-seekers Benefithas been providedfor some time on a weekly basis.
Information relating to some other long-term schemes, including Long-Term Disability/Illness Benefit, Child Benefit,Carer’s Allowance andOne Parent Family Payment is provided to Revenue on an annual basis.
On foot of a specific data matching exercise carried out by the Department in November 2011, following work done by one of the High Level Group’s sub-groups, as outlined above, over 560,000 records of pensioners were provided to the Revenue Commissioners.The data comprised the customer name and weekly entitlement, payable for a week in November.
Although data in respect of this customer group were provided occasionally in the past, there werenot previously provided on a bulk basis. However, the development of new technology in the Department has facilitated the provision of these data in a complete and continuous manner.
This is part of an ongoing policy to enhance data sharing between the DSP and other public service bodies. As technology develops, in DSP and elsewhere, it is expected that the exchange of data with other organisations will continue to be improved. These arrangements will, in time, also provide for any changes in DSP payments to be supplied on a regular basis to Revenue so that they have the most up-to-date information available.
Data provided by Revenue to DSP
The Committee should also note that DSP obtains data from the Revenue Commissioners regularly to ensure that persons who are in employment - or who have had some interaction with Revenue - are compliant regarding their entitlement to social welfare payments.
In fact, the Department has been sharing data with other government departments and agencies for many years. Since 1997, the Department obtains commencement of employment data from Revenue which is matched against social welfare claims and relevant cases are investigated, where necessary. Information is also received on a daily basis in relation to PRSI collection and on a more ad-hoc basis in relation to certain tax exemptions and other tax heads.
Other examples of ongoing co-operation include data matching and sharing of information with:
- The Irish Prison Service which provides data to the Department on a weekly basis;
- The Department of Education and Skills which provides student data;
- The Commission on Taxi Regulation which provides data on taxi/hackney licences.
- The Probate Office
- The Private Rental Tenancy Board (PRTB)
- The Health Service Executive (HSE)
DSP notification of customers
In the context of the current matter, there has been some commentary in relation to the role of the Department in notifying its customers regarding the taxation of their social welfare payments.
I would like to assure the Committee that, in the case of social welfare payments which are subject to tax, the Department notifies its customers that their payments are taxable and that the customer should contact his/her local Tax Office in this regard. A notice to this effect is contained in the award letter issued by the Department to the customer.
The information leaflets for each of the relevant schemes also contain a reference to a potential tax liability. These leaflets are available for download from welfare.ie. In addition, when an enquiry is made about entitlement for any particular scheme, the relevant leafletis sent to the enquirertogether with the relevant application form for the schemes.
The Department’s website also contains information on this issue in the scheme specific pages and on the front page in “payments explained”.
With effect from Monday 9th January, a link to the relevant page on the Revenue website from the Department’s website has also been set up.
Public Service Reform
Finally, the Committee will be aware that a primary objective of public service reform is to integrate services with a view to providing better service to citizens and greater efficiency for the State. Inter-agency co-operation among public bodies at national and local level is one of the key pillars to the achievement of this objective. In this context, the Department will continue to explore opportunities to exchangedata with other public bodies with a view to ensuring that public services are delivered as efficiently as possible to those who have an entitlement to such services.
In conclusion Chairman, I am happy to answer any questions that Committee members may have and I welcome your views and comments. Thank you.
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