Ms Catherine Kellaghan:

Disability allowance is subject to a control policy. Such policies are applied to all schemes in the Department to ensure people stay eligible. There are two aspects to medical schemes, one of which is medical eligibility and when it should be reviewed. In the case of a person who has a medical condition which is very unlikely to change, the medical assessor might recommend that it should be reviewed after two, three or five years and we would go along with that. The person might have a much shorter review period in terms of his or her means if there is some indication that his or her means might change. It is basically done on a case-by-case risk basis.