COVID Illness Benefit (Enhanced Illness Benefit) is a scheme that was introduced in March 2020, to support people who are incapable of work or who are required to self-isolate, as a result of a COVID diagnosis or being a probable source of infection. To date a total of 365,376 COVID Illness Benefit related claims have been processed of which 340,005 have received a payment.
The majority of the standard Illness Benefit claims are automatically processed once medical evidence has been received from the customer, where an application is received and an e-Cert is submitted by a GP.
Over the past four weeks an average of some 31,300 COVID Illness Benefit applications have been received weekly with some 54,800 received in the first week of January. This compares to some 8,000 weekly applications in December. The medical evidence provided for the majority of these claims is a text from the HSE advising the person to self-isolate or that they have a COVID diagnosis. From 03 January 2022, confirmation of an order for antigen tests from the HSE or a PCR test booking is also accepted as medical evidence.
As advised previously it is not possible to differentiate between Illness Benefit and Enhanced Illness Benefit in claim processing statistics. Processing statistics for Illness Benefit, which includes Enhanced Illness Benefit, for November saw some 73.58% of claims awarded within a week with 68.28% of claims awarded within a week in December 2021.
While my Department has made changes to increase automation within the Enhanced Illness Benefit process which has helped improve processing times, many claims still require manual intervention. Additional staff from around the Department have also been redirected to assist with the processing of the increased volume of Enhanced Illness Benefit claims. The high volumes have resulted in some delays where manual intervention is still required and the Department is working to clear all claims as quickly as possible.
See table below. This refers to the total customers in receipt of Enhanced Illness Benefit for each week since 1st November.
|
Week
|
Enhanced Illness Benefit recipients
|
|
01/11/2021 to 07/11/2022
|
3,820
|
|
08/11/2021 to 14/11/2021
|
4,720
|
|
15/11/2021 to 21/11/2021
|
5,979
|
|
22/11/2021 to 27/11/2021
|
6,877
|
|
29/11/2021 to 05/12/2021
|
7,959
|
|
06/12/2021 to 12/12/2021
|
8,343
|
|
13/12/2021 to 19/12/2021
|
10,710
|
|
20/12/2021 to 26/12/2021
|
17,937
|
|
27/12/2021 to 02/01/2022
|
7,580
|
|
03/01/2022 to 09/01/2022
|
30,934
|
|
10/01/2022 to 14/01/2022
|
84,885
|
