James Lawless
Question:250. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason a disability pension has been stopped for a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45529/24]
View answerThursday, 7 November 2024
Questions (250)
Written answers
Disability Allowance (DA) is a means-tested payment for people with a specified disability whose income falls below certain limits and who are aged between 16 and are under 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to medical assessment, means test and habitual residency conditions.
The Department periodically reviews claims in payment to ensure that there is continued entitlement. In this case the means of the person concerned were reviewed.
Income from a compensation claim was not considered when determining the means of the person concerned for this DA assessment.
However, Approved Minimum Retirement Funds (AMRFs) and Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) pension funds are similar to funds in a bank account in terms of accessibility. Therefore, the current value of the AMRF/ARF is treated as capital for means assessment purposes.
The annual balancing statement shows the amount of the pension fund accessible to the customer. This is the current value of the AMRF/ARF, adjusted for any early encashment. This is the amount to be assessed in accordance with Rule 1(1) of Part 5 Schedule 3 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 (as amended).
The evidence relied upon by the deciding officer included a statement from Standard Life with policy Value and a Transfer Value. Upon review it was determined that rather than using the current policy value of the ARF, the overall transfer value of the ARF belonging to the person concerned (which is the lower of the two) was used.
Following a means review, it was determined that although the means of the person concerned have reduced, they are still over the statutory limit for DA. The person concerned was notified on 4th November 2024 of this decision, the reason for it and his right of review and/or appeal.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.