The Social Security Minister says she won't write off benefit overpayments because it would be 'unfair'.

A recent scrutiny review found that 1 in 5 people on Income Support are paying the Social Security department back after receiving too much in benefits.

The panel also revealed that errors by Customer and Local Services staff were one of the two main reasons for overpayments.

As part of 26 recommendations, the panel suggested any overpayments made due to an error on CLS's part should be written off, but the minister says she won't do that.

In her response to the report, Deputy Elaine Millar says if her department didn't chase overpayments it would increase the cost of the Income Support system for the taxpayer.

"To introduce a policy of writing off additional benefit payments would increase the cost of Income Support to the taxpayer and would not be fair on other benefit claimants who have received the correct amount of benefit.

Without an increase in funding allocation, this proposal could lead to benefit rates being reduced to maintain spending within budget."

Deputy Millar has only accepted three of the recommendations made by scrutiny, while she has partially agreed to five others.

"From the recommendations made by the Scrutiny Panel, we are only acting on the ones that we know can make a positive improvement.

It’s important that we only commit to actions that we know are deliverable and will maintain the fairness and integrity of the benefits system."