Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1178. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Social Protection if an exception will be made for a young person (details supplied) with dual Irish-Spanish heritage living in Ireland on a disability payment who wishes to visit the person's elderly grandparents in Spain for more than one week without losing the person's payment. [41894/22]
View answerDisability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, means test and Habitual Residency conditions.
Except in certain exceptional circumstances, DA is not payable for any period in respect of which the claimant is resident outside of the state. On an administrative basis, DA allows for two weeks holiday entitlement in any twelve month period.
I can confirm that the person concerned notified the department regarding holiday from the state from 11 June 2022 to 18 June 2022.
The person concerned would be entitled to receive DA for the week out of the state from 11 June 2022 to 18 June 2022.
However, to avail of this holiday entitlement, he would need to provide a copy of his travel itinerary (boarding pass outbound and inbound).
A Deciding Officer (DO), has requested travel itinerary from the person concerned on the 04 July 2022 and 20 July 2022 in order to establish the person’s entitlement during that time.
To date the requested documents of his travel itinerary has not been received.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
