asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he is aware of the hardship imposed on an old age pensioner who is unfortunate enough to lose his pension book; if he will make arrangements to ensure that such a person will not have to wait months before a new book is issued; and if he will discontinue the practice whereby the pensioner concerned is required to forgo the pension in respect of the period that he is left without a pension book.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Lost Pension Books.
29.
I do not accept the suggestions in the Deputy's question.
Standing arrangements are operated by my Department with the object of ensuring that a pensioner who reports the loss of his pension book does not have to wait months for a replacement book and does not lose any part of his pension. If the Deputy will let me have particulars of any case in which, despite the arrangements to which I have referred, undue delay or loss is alleged to have occurred, I will have a special investigation made.
Would the Minister indicate what he understands constitutes no undue delay?
About a fortnight or three weeks.
It is my experience that it takes two months to get a replacement.
That is not my information.
Is the Minister aware that, when a pension book is lost, before payment of arrears due can be made, the certificates in the GPO have to be checked to find out if, in fact, the pension has been cashed in the meantime? In view of the fact that the pension book can be used only in one post office, would the Minister say why this arrangement has to be carried out?
The arrangement, as I understand it, takes about two weeks on average. It is very seldom over that. The first thing we do is to stop payment of the lost orders and get a certificate as to when the final payment was made on the particular book. This takes about two weeks and in no case does the pensioner lose. Neither should he lose.
I appreciate that he does not lose, and I know it is now possible to get a replacement book fairly quickly, but the Minister is not correct when he says it is a matter of getting a certificate from the office from which the pension issues. In fact a check has to be carried out to find out if the pension orders have come in. Surely that is entirely unnecessary in view of the fact that they can be checked easily in the office of issue? This process takes several months. Deputy Mullen is quite correct: it may take three or four months.
That is not correct.
I can give the Minister numerous examples.
One gets some extraordinary cases. A pensioner changes his address, goes to live elsewhere, comes back again, and does not draw his pension during that time. These things make it quite difficult.
The Minister is aware of one case I brought to his notice in which a pensioner died six months later and had still not received his pension.
And for a very good reason.