Finian McGrath
Question:300. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding an appeal in respect of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 5. [14174/13]
View answerWednesday, 20 March 2013
Questions (300)
Written answers
The person concerned incurred a disability allowance overpayment of €42,673.80 over the period 2 January 2002 to 3 September 2007. She has been repaying this debt by agreed weekly deductions of €30.00 from her one-parent family payment. To date, a total of €8,035 has been repaid.
Article 245(i) of S.I. 142 of 2007 provides for withholding of all or part of any benefit or assistance arrears due to a person, as a method of recovering or part-recovering an outstanding overpayment liability. Arrears can be withheld without the agreement of the person concerned, but in all cases, a notification of the intention to withhold arrears is issued and the person concerned is offered the opportunity to give their views on the proposal, within 21 days.
The person concerned applied for domiciliary care allowance in April 2012. Her application was initially disallowed, but granted, on appeal, in February 2013. It is proposed that the arrears of this payment due to her for the period May 2012 to March 2013 be retained and offset against her overpayment debt. This would leave an outstanding balance of €31,254.80 for repayment by on-going weekly deduction.
The person concerned was notified by letter on 13 March 2013 of the proposal to retain the arrears as outlined, and subsequently contacted the Department by phone to discuss this. She was advised that in order to give this matter full consideration, she should write to the Department, giving details of her financial circumstances and her envisaged costs in adapting her home for her child’s needs.
This information has just been received by the Department (on 19th March) and, consequently, her case is being reviewed and she will be notified of the outcome without delay.