Covid-19 Pandemic Supports

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 February 2022

Tuesday, 15 February 2022

Questions (496)

Denis Naughten

Question:

496. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of claims submitted and the number of persons that have received enhanced illness benefit for Covid-19; the number of persons that were in payment for two, four, six, eight, and ten weeks, respectively; the number of persons that transferred over to illness benefit after the ten week payment period had expired; the number of these claims that were in payment for more than two weeks; the number that was transferred over to disability allowance after the ten week payment period had expired; the number of these claims that were in payment for more than two weeks; the number of such claims that were rejected or pending; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7661/22]

Written answers

Minister for Social Protection

Enhanced Illness Benefit (EIB) is a form of Illness Benefit that is payable to self-employed persons or an employee who is told to self-isolate or has been diagnosed with Covid-19. It is important to note that a person may have received Enhanced Illness Benefit on more than one occasion since the payment was introduced, and thus have more than one claim for Enhanced illness Benefit. The number of claims received and the individuals claiming EIB up to February 14th 2022 are provided in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of EIB Claims and EIB Recipients

	Claims	Individual Recipients
Enhanced Illness Benefit	463,016	355,754

EIB is payable for up to 10 weeks where a person is diagnosed with Covid-19. In a case where a person continues to be ill beyond 10 weeks, standard Illness Benefit may be paid for an extended period, based on the person’s continued eligibility. Details on the duration of EIB claims are set out in Table 2. The data in Table 2 refers to the claim duration, based on the certification dates.

Table 2: EIB claim durations

Weeks	Claims
0 - 2	368,140
2 - 4	68,291
4 - 6	13,433
6 - 8	5,130
8 - 10	2,570
10+	5,452

4,314 people had Enhanced Illness Benefit claims with a total certification period of 10 or more weeks, of which 3,018 transferred to Illness Benefit payments, and were certified for 2 or more weeks. 69 persons who had at least one EIB claim of more than 10 weeks duration are now in receipt of Disability Allowance. A total of 9 people had a Disability Allowance claim rejected, while 10 people had Disability Allowance claims pending as of mid-February 2022.