asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will discontinue the issue of notices of award of old age pensions by pension committees in cases in which the awards are being appealed by the social welfare officer.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Old Age Pension Notices.
8.
The issue of notices of award of old age pensions by pension committees is required by the provisions of sub-article (5) of article 14 of the Old Age Pensions Consolidated Regulations, 1922. It seems to me that, in cases of the kind referred to by the Deputy, notification is essential in order that the claimant may be placed in a position to submit to the appeals officer any facts or contentions in support of the award made in his case by the pension committee. For this reason it is not proposed to alter the provision.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary agree that it is misleading that, while most pension committees award the full pension, the applicant often receives a notification the next week that the social welfare officer is appealing against their decision?
Undoubtedly that happens in some cases. However, the pension committee are aware of what the legal entitlement of an applicant would be. Unfortunately, for various reasons not connected with the facts of the financial circumstances of the claimant, on occasions they tend to award a full pension to the claimant when they know full well that the entitlement to full pension is not there. They then place the obligation on the deciding officer to reverse their decision.
Would it not be better if the appeals officer notified that person that he was appealing against the decision without the claimant knowing what the actual award of the pension committee was? Otherwise they are left under the impression that they are getting a full pension, and ultimately it turns out that they get no pension because very often pension committees are far more liberal than the social welfare officer would be.
I do not think it is a question of their being far more liberal but that on occasions they tend to be very irresponsible.
I was a member of a pension committee——
So was I, so he should not worry about it.
It is not a matter of irresponsibility but a matter of the pension committee, who would be familiar with a person's circumstances, being more in his favour than the social welfare officer would be. I think it is a local affair——
The Deputy is making a statement.
The question of irresponsibility, which the Parliamentary Secretary has brought into this does not arise.
Would the term "sympathetic" be more appropriate?
No. I do not think it is sympathetic to mislead a person into thinking he is going to get something to which he is not legally entitled. I think it is irresponsible.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not agree his statement is an argument for the abolition of these committees?
Possibly so, but the question refers to the procedure to be adopted in the present circumstances where the pension committees exist, and it would not be appropriate not to convey the decision of the pension committee to the applicant. The applicant is entitled to be in possession of all the facts relating to his case.
If it was indicated in the notification received by the applicant that it was a recommendation subject to appeal, it would solve the whole problem.