Lost benefits millions criticised

The report said millions were lost in fraud and errors

Tens of millions of pounds have been overpaid through benefit errors or fraud, according to a report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office.

The report criticises the Social Security Agency for its failure to prevent fraud and overpayment.

It also says a system put into place to prevent this was not used properly.

Last year, fraud and errors by the SSA led to £60m being overpaid, despite the £22m being spent over recent years on a programme to prevent overpayment.

However, this was not applied properly and more than 20% of the cases were never actually examined.

It is estimated that £9m was paid out incorrectly because of this.

The Audit Office found that half of the agency's staff are not confident that suspected fraud is being investigated properly.

The report also says that the number of suspected frauds continue to rise yet the number of investigations has not kept pace with this.

But where the agency has taken cases to court it has a 97% success record.