Tusla found over €8,600 in overpayments to foster carers in north east after children left their care

Seán McCárthaigh

Overpayments totalling over €8,600 were made by Tusla to foster carers in the north east of the country for periods after foster children had left their care, an internal audit has revealed.

A report by Tusla – the Child and Family Agency – concluded the adequacy and effectiveness of policies, procedures and controls relating to cash payments to foster carers in the Louth-Meath area were “unsatisfactory.”

It stated such a finding showed there was “a serious and substantial risk the system fails to meet its objectives” and “urgent action” was required.

Tusla auditors carried out tests in January 2025 on a sample of 25 payments to ensure the agency was complying with its own policy on financial payments and allowances to foster carers in the north-east.

They discovered five overpayments to foster carers worth a total of €8,655 were paid for periods up to 73 days after a foster child had left their care due to delayed notifications by social workers that placements had ended.

It also emerged that an overpayment of €4,200 for aftercare was made to one foster carer in relation to three children.

The report, which was released under freedom of information legislation, revealed that payments for the aftercare continued until January 2023 in relation to one child, even though their placement had ended in June 2020.

Payments continued until September 2023 for two other children, although their placements had ended in June 2022 and June 2023, respectively.

In another case, an overpayment of €600 for aftercare was made due to the incorrect rate of €300 being applied instead of the approved rate of €200.

The report also showed that €1,800 in aftercare allowances was paid to a foster carer before the corresponding “payment information form” was approved.

Auditors said such findings created an increased risk of financial mismanagement and non-compliance, “which could also lead to unauthorised or inappropriate payments.”

They noted that three out of eight overpayments involving allowances totalling €3,208 were erroneously paid to foster carers due to “manual processing errors”, with one overpayment understated by €101 due to a miscalculation of the duration of the overpayment.

The audit also highlighted deficiencies in the approval system for payments to foster carers, while there were delays in the issuing of letters notifying foster carers of overpayments.

Discrepancies in payment values also indicated a potential underpayment of €4,242 to foster carers.

An inspection of a live database also revealed non-compliance with Tusla’s procedures on the frequency of reviewing long-term foster care arrangements.

It highlighted that such reviews were only being carried out every 12-18 months instead of every six months.

Aftercare placements were reviewed every six months instead of the recommended three-month period, while additional support placements were not being reviewed on a monthly basis as prescribed.

The audit made a total of six recommendations, including three given a “high” ranking, which signalled “immediate action” was needed to address a significant risk of substantial financial loss or a major non-compliance with procedures, policies or regulations.

While the effectiveness of the internal control system for overseeing cash allowance payments in the Louth-Meath area was found to be unsatisfactory, Tusla auditors said the findings were administrative shortfalls that could be remediated by management promptly.

Under an agreed action plan, Tusla said management would ensure compliance with its policies on payments to foster carers by regularly validating payment information forms against approved rates and securing timely approval for all payments.

It said thorough reviews would also be conducted to correct calculation errors promptly, as well as confirming placement end dates to avoid overpayments.

Tusla said notifications of overpayments would also be sent within five working days of any overpayment being identified.

Earlier this year, a separate audit on payments to foster carers in North Dublin identified over €11,000 being paid in allowances without appropriate supporting documents.

It also revealed overpayments totalling over €6,000 were made to foster carers due to delays by social workers in notifying colleagues that placements had ended.