asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will state in relation to a maternity benefit claim by a person (particulars supplied) (a) the date the claim was received, (b) the date payment, which was not received by this person, is alleged to have been issued, (c) the date or dates further letters were received by his Department regarding non-payment of benefit, (d) the date and contents of replies, if any, sent by his Department, and (e) the date payment was finally made following representations and the reasons for the delay.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Maternity Benefit Claim.
140.
A claim for maternity grant by the person referred to was received on 23rd September, 1966. Payment of the grant was authorised on the same day, and the relevant documents bear an indication that a cheque in payment issued on 26th September, 1966.
The first, and only, intimation of non-receipt of benefit was the Deputy's own letter received in my Department on 2nd December, 1966, to which a reply was sent on 12th December, containing the information I have repeated here, and adding that as the claimant had not received payment a substitute cheque for £4 was being issued to her. A cheque for that amount was sent to the claimant on 13th December, 1966.
Enquiries made in the matter established that the cheque noted in the records as having issued in September last, was not, in fact, sent out, and that this failure was due to a regrettable error of a kind which occurs very infrequently.