Vol. 488 No. 7
310 Mr. U. Burke asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs when payment of arrears in excess of six months will be made to recipients of the survivor's contributory pension who have not yet been paid; the number of people who have applied for full arrears; the cost involved in making this payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7060/98]
A total of 264 people have applied to date for full arrears of widow(er)'s contributory pension, having made their original pension claim outside the time limits specified in legislation.
Sixty of these 264 claims are covered under section 32 of the Social Welfare Act, 1997, which provides for payment of arrears up to 12 months for claims made on or after 1 January 1997. These clients have received 12 months' back-payment and are now seeking full arrears from the time of their spouses' death. The remaining 204 relate to late claims made prior to January 1997.
Payment outside the statutory limits cannot be made except in very specific and exceptional circumstances, such as exceptional hardship, departmental error or where the person was so incapacitated that they were unable to make a claim within the maximum claim period.
Arrangements are being made to review all the cases where the question of further arrears payments has been raised. The Department will consider the particular circumstances of each of these cases and where additional evidence is required to verify the situation this information will be sought from the clients concerned before a decision is made.
It is not possible to estimate the potential cost of further pension back-payment until the review of their cases has been progressed further.
