Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 section 336

Repayment of benefit, assistance, etc., overpaid

Section 336 provides for the recovery of overpayments where a person has received a social welfare benefit, assistance or other payment to which they were not entitled, or received it at a higher rate than they were entitled to.

• Where a person receives any social welfare payment they were not entitled to, or receives it at a rate higher than their entitlement, the overpayment must be repaid on demand — unless the overpayment arose from a revised decision under sections 302, 319 or 325.
• Liability to repay falls on the person who received the payment, anyone to whom it was paid on their behalf, or the personal representative of that person.
• Overpayments of benefit (i.e. social insurance payments) must be repaid to the Social Insurance Fund, while overpayments of assistance, child benefit, working family payment, continued payment for qualified children or back to work family dividend must be repaid to the Minister.
• The amount to be repaid is either the full sum paid during the period of non-entitlement, or the difference between the rate actually paid and the rate to which the person was properly entitled.