John McGuinness
Question:1113. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if an invalidity pension or long-term illness benefit will issue to a person (details supplied). [45427/19]
View answerTuesday, 5 November 2019
Questions (1113)
Written answers
Invalidity pension (IP) is a payment for people who are permanently incapable of work because of illness or incapacity and who satisfy the pay related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions.
To qualify for IP a claimant must, inter-alia, have at least 260 (5 years) paid PRSI contributions since entering social insurance and 48 contributions paid or credited in the last or second last complete contribution year before the relevant date of their claim. Only PRSI classes A, E, H or S contributions are reckonable for IP purposes.
A claim for IP was received from the gentleman concerned on 30 October 2018. His claim was disallowed on the grounds that the contribution conditions for the scheme were not satisfied. Specifically, he does not have the required 260 contributions paid since he entered social insurance. He was notified on 07 August 2019 of this decision, the reason for it and of his right of review and appeal.
He requested a review and lodged an appeal of the decision. Following a review of all the information available it has been decided that there is no change to the original decision. The gentleman concerned was notified on 30 October 2019 of the outcome of the review and a submission was prepared by the department and forwarded to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office for determination.
The gentleman referred to was in receipt of disability allowance (DA) payment but this payment has been stopped from 10 April 2019 as he no longer satisfies the Habitual Residence Conditions. He has appealed the decision to stop his DA payment to the Social Welfare Appeals Office.
The person concerned was in receipt of Illness Benefit (IB) from August 2007 to April 2017 when he commenced DA payment. My Department is carrying out a full review of his entitlement to IB and he will be informed of the outcome as soon as the review has been completed.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.