The person concerned was awarded disability allowance in late September 2016, with effect from 10 August 2016. Disability allowance has been in payment since 05 October 2016. However, arrears were withheld pending agreement on the recovery of an outstanding debt to the Department. The outstanding debt relates to an overpayment of one parent family payment.
My Department is obliged to recoup any debt to it in an appropriate and timely manner and has attempted to contact this customer on multiple occasions regarding proposals for recovery, including the setting off of arrears due against the debt and the commencement of weekly deductions to cover the remaining balance of the debt.
However, there has been no response to any of this correspondence and my Department will now proceed to deduct the arrears of disability allowance from the outstanding debt and commence weekly deductions from 22 February 2017. Notification of this decision issued to this customer on 13 February 2017.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.