An extraordinary 11,000 people in Ireland had state illness benefits stopped last year after extensive medical checks were undertaken.

The Department of Social Protection’s crackdown on bogus claims for medical certificates found out more than one-four of the 40,000 people assessed were cheating the system and had been fit to work.

The Irish Independent investigation found that claimants were able to draw a minimum of €188 per week but that their payments were cut off after reassessments by the department.

On top of the 40,000 claimants that were checked out, 13,000 people called for reassessments didn’t show up and were automatically cut off.

The revelation of a flawed system raises issues of the professional conduct of some doctors and the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) accepted that docs have to take some of the blame.

"Not every GP is doing this correctly. To be blunt, those figures are disappointing. They are not very good,” said ICGP spokesperson Dr John Ball.

Three sick pay schemes exist in this country - illness benefits, invalidity pensions and incapacity supplements.

Usually around €1.6bn is paid out every year from these schemes and last year there was total of 133,000 claimants.

Unfortunately for the hard-working taxpayer, none of the people found out to be milking the system were forced to pay back the money.