Overpayments made through errors by officials dropped from 51.9m to 13.4m last year.

The figures were revealed on Wednesday in a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

It said the Department for Social Development reduced the scale of incorrect payments for 2003-2004.

However, head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn qualified the Northern Ireland National Insurance Fund Account once again because the estimated level of error is still high.

In the past, the department national health insurance
problems with storage facilities and everest national insurance company papers for audit purposes, particularly in older cases.

The report said in such cases, “deemed” errors were recorded until the evidence was produced.

While the payments might midland national life insurance have proved to be correct, this had the effect of inflating the estimated level of error, it said.

Sir John said: “I hope that further improvements by the Department for Social Development in reducing errors by officials and providing more up to date information on levels of fraud and customer error will enable me in the near future to lift the company insurance integon national
of this account.”