Carer's payment refusals queried

THERE WAS a "worrying trend" of applications for the carer's allowance being rejected by the Department of Social Protection, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

There seemed to be an increase in rejection of applications for the allowance in cases where people would have passed the means test two years ago, said Enda Egan, the chief executive of the Carers Association.

Refusals tended to be based on the health of the person receiving care even when their doctor had signed off on it, Mr Egan told the Oireachtas Committee on Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

Delays in the assessment of the allowance were an additional concern, he said. Anecdotally, it was taking four months for the department to respond to requests for the allowance and when these were rejected an appeal could take a further four months, he said.

It was most concerning when people coming off the carer's benefit were rejected for the carer's allowance, he said.

The carer's benefit is paid for up to two years to people who leave the workforce to care for a person full-time. The carer's allowance is a means-tested payment

Fine Gael TD Michael Ring described as "outrageous" a number of cases he had come across where people receiving the carer's benefit were rejected for the allowance.

Carers Association senior policy officer Claire Duffy said while the carer's benefit was based on PRSI stamps, there was a series of tests for the allowance and rejection is often on medical grounds.

Some 48,000 people received the carer's allowance and almost 2,000 the carer's benefit last year, the committee heard. The association also raised concern about Irish people returning from abroad to care for elderly relatives being refused carer's allowance.

Last year, 216 claims for carer's allowance were refused because of the habitual residency condition. Some 35 were Irish citizens were refused because their main property was abroad, Mr Egan said. The association was told the Government decided not to publish its policy document on carers because the recommendations section had not been formulated, chairman Frank Goodwin said.