John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While I hear what the Minister says, illness benefit is still a mess and causing untold problems for people out there. These are not isolated cases. Not a day goes by without someone contacting my constituency offices on the problems he or she is experiencing. There are many cases. Yesterday, a man came to my clinic who has been in receipt of illness benefit since 4 January 2019. On that date, he received a full payment whereas the week after he received a part payment. The following week he got no payment and the week after that he received three part payments to make up the full payment. Last week, he got a full payment. His certificates had been submitted well ahead of time and this is not an isolated incident. This is going on right across the State and it is an unmitigated mess. General practitioners, GPs, are hesitant to fill in the new forms, which have been rolled out to allow people to go beyond the week. That is despite the encouragement of patients by the Department to do so. Has the Minister engaged with GPs on the serious problem with the new forms?

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