Friend caught claiming PUP

danslevent

Hey everyone,

My friend was put on PUP for six weeks during the summer holidays when their employment closed for the summer. They never cancelled the payments and just received an email today saying their payments have been stopped because they are back in full employment but they have committed an offense under 251 of the social welfare consolidation act.

What will generally happen in this case? I guess he will be obliged to pay it all back?

Should be interesting to see how many of these cases pop up now because I have heard of others claiming it too when they really had no right.

Lenar3556

He was very foolish. The PAYE reporting system is such that this was almost certainly going to be detected.

They will likely enter into an agreement with him to reclaim the overpayment. Depending on the circumstances they may also initiate a criminal prosecution against him and if convicted this would leave him with an additional court imposed penalty and criminal record for a fraud offence.

Not worth it.

Edit: Incidentally he wasn’t put on PUP. He initiated a claim for it himself and made certain declarations when he did so. If the employer closing for the summer was not COVID related, there may be a question as to whether he was entitled to PUP at any point. For example if the employer closed their premises for six weeks every summer it would raise a question of whether this lack of employment was in fact resulting from the pandemic, and whether a legitimate PUP entitlement ever existed.

Dempo1

OP, people are NOT put on PUP, they apply if legitimately entitled to it and qualify under very specific Criteria. I have to say, based on your explanation of how your friend ended up claiming PUP when their employer just closed for the summer, seems very odd and not Covid related at all, it would seem a JSA payment may have been more appropriate to apply for. Also worth pointing out, PUP applications have nothing to do with an employer with the exception of claimant verifying as part of application they were laid off temporarily or lost their Job due to employment being affected by the pandemic and secondly the department verifying PRSI contributions prior to making claims (checked with revenue, not employer)

More serious is not closing claim on returning to work, that may be deemed as a deliberate attempt to defraud and the rules cannot be any simpler, Receipients close PUP on first day of return to work.

No one can honestly say what the consequences will be , an arrangement will be made to repay fully any monies owed, the fact it wasn't the Gardai making contact with your friend suggests a prosecution may not be instigated and your friends actions ,whilst quite serious, not on the scale of someone claiming by means of Identity fraud, making multiple claims etc.

Re your final point about it should be interesting ? At the very start and perhaps for a few months there was clearly abuses going on, but No, there'll be very few cases similar to your friends as all taxable income for PUP Receipients is reported to SW by Revenue automatically, my only surprise is your friends payment was not stopped within a month (maximum) of their return to work.