A specialist unit within the Department of Social Protection continues to check people's claims in a bid to catch out fraudsters.
Some 120 officers work at the Special Investigation Unit which focuses on assessing and detecting social welfare fraud.
Included in this is 21 gardai whose roles are to investigate the more serious cases of welfare fraud and, specifically, people generally prosecuted under Criminal Justice legislation.
Since the Pandemic Unemployment Payment was introduced in March 2020, the unit has also broadened the scope of its role to include probes into this benefit.
PUP claimants regularly have their eligibility assessed based on their self-declaration when lodging their claims.
The Department runs post-payment checks that include verifying data against Revenue records and examining cases where the same bank account is used multiple times.
Cases where an employer or members of the public report concerns are also examined, with data analytics used to identify and check claims.
Employer inspections are also carried out.
Latest figures show that more than 75,600 people received the PUP this week, an increase of over 8,700 on the previous week.
Since December 7, the PUP reopened for workers who have been impacted by the latest restrictions and measures to slow down the spread of the Covid virus.
There are five weekly rates of PUP payable for these workers who lose their job as a result of the latest restrictions with the rate determined by the person’s weekly earnings, namely €350, €300, €250, €208 and €150.
A spokesperson for the Department said: "Gardaí have been seconded to the Department’s Special Investigation Unit since December 2014.
"The exclusive function of the Department’s Special Investigation Unit, which comprises 120 officers (including the Gardai on secondment), is to investigate and detect social welfare fraud.
"The Unit carries out a wide range of control activities and projects. It works closely with other compliance and enforcement agencies. The emphasis is on direct intervention, high visibility activity and direct engagement.
"There are currently 20 Gardaí and 1 Sergeant positions as part of the Unit.
"A particular emphasis and focus of the Garda resources in the Unit is to investigate the more serious cases of Social Welfare fraud and, specifically, those generally prosecuted under Criminal Justice legislation.
"Since 2020, Gardaí – in conjunction with Department officials - have been investigating instances of fraudulent pandemic unemployment payments as well as carrying out similar work on other schemes administered by the Department."
