Illness Benefit is a scheme under which people who are unable to work due to illness or injury are entitled to receive a weekly payment from the Social Insurance fund.
The basic rate of payment for a single person is €198 per week. Entitlement to the payment, which may be made for a period of up to two years, is contingent on a person’s social insurance record and been certified by their General practitioner (GP) as being unfit for work.
I would like to be clear that, nothing has changed with the transfer to the new system, as before, patients do not need to pay a fee to receive these medical certificate from their GP, as the Department pays the doctor an agreed fee to provide them.
Should any person seeking to make a claim for Illness Benefit or another scheme experience a difficulty in getting their medical certificate from their GP, we would ask them to notify the Department directly.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputies.