Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 8 May 1997

Vol. 479 No. 1

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

Ivor Callely

Question:

77 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Social Welfare the Ombudsman's findings in relation to his Department's ruling on social welfare applications for entitlements; the additional measures, if any, he intends to put in place following this ruling; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12333/97]

Minister for Social Welfare (Proinsias De Rossa)

It is assumed the Deputy is referring to the report by the Ombudsman of the investigation of complaints regarding the payment of arrears of contributory pensions, which was published last week.

This report concerns the investigation of three separate complaints which were made against the refusal by the Department to pay full arrears of pension to the complainants, who, for varying reasons, were late in making their claims. The Department has accepted the Ombudsman's recommendations to pay arrears of pension in all three cases.

In two of the cases, the persons concerned had failed to claim old age contributory pension in time, but were in receipt of other pensions from the Department. Their other pension claims have now been treated as claims for old age contributory pension and arrears have been paid on that basis.

The late claim in the third case was allegedly due to incorrect advice being given by the Department. The Ombudsman, in his formal findings in this case, concluded that on the balance of probabilities the person in question did call to the Department on two separate occasions, as he contended, and that the officials he met failed to advise him adequately in relation to his pension entitlement. The Ombudsman also found that the person concerned did himself, to some extent, contribute to this failure to get adequate advice and that his failure to claim a pension in time may be attributed both to his general lack of knowledge in relation to social insurance and to the failure of the Department adequately to advise him. The Ombudsman concluded that the Department had discretion under existing arrangements to provide appropriate redress in his case.

In the light of the Ombudsman's recommendation, the Department decided to pay pension arrears and compensation for the delay for the period in question.

Apart from my Department's specific responses in these three cases, I am pleased to inform the Deputy that this year's Social Welfare Act provided for more general improvements in this area, including: the maximum period for which arrears of old age contributory pension, retirement pension, contributory widow's and widower's pension and contributory orphan's allowance can be paid has been doubled from six months to 12 months. This new provision applies to claims made on or after 1 January 1997; payment of arrears of up to six months are now being provided for in the case of late claims for family income supplement (FIS). Under the former arrangements, there was no provision for the payment of arrears of FIS; and further regulations for dealing with cases outside the statutory limits will be made later this year.

In addition to the recommendations relating to the three specific cases, the Ombudsman made five general recommendations at paragraph 91 to which my Department is responding as follows: the information services will continue to be developed with a view to maximising the public's awareness of the scope and application of entitlements and, in particular, the requirement to make claims in time and the effects on entitlements of not so doing; it is intended that the circumstances in which arrears are currently paid on an extra-statutory basis will be incorporated in regulations to be made later this year under section 32 of the Social Welfare Act, 1997. These regulations will be made public and arrangements will be made to have their provisions made known to applicants who are not entitled to full arrears. Arrangements have been in place for some time now requesting claimants who submit late claims to indicate the reason why the claims are late; the notification of potential contributory old age pensioners of a possible entitlement in advance of pension age has been identified as an important objective and is being pursued in the context of the redevelopment of the Department's pensions computer system; and the recommendations contained in paragraphs 91 (iv) and (v) of the Ombudsman's report will be taken into consideration in the formulation of the regulations to be made under section 32 of the Social Welfare Act, 1997.

I believe that the revised provisions contained in this year's Social Welfare Act and in the associated regulations will prove to be sufficiently broad to provide the flexibility required to address the issues arising from the report of the Ombudsman.