Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. First of all, no money has been taken from anybody. I will read the reply I have, which explains exactly how this situation arose. My Department provides a wide range of income supports and employment supports to assist jobseekers and employees with disabilities. The partial capacity benefit, PCB, scheme allows a person in receipt of an invalidity or illness payment to enter employment or self-employment and continue to receive a partial or full payment. The amount of payment is set at 50%, 75% or 100% of their previous payment, depending on the extent to which their condition is assessed to impair their capacity to work. PCB has also been designed so that there are no restrictions or limits on earnings or on the number of hours a person can work. A person moving from invalidity pension to PCB will continue on his or her payment for a maximum of three years. A person on PCB with an underlying entitlement to an invalidity pension will also retain his or her free travel pass for a period of five years. Furthermore, people on PCB may return to illness benefit or an invalidity pension if they find they cannot continue to work.

As a standard part of its operations to ensure payment integrity and in line with the recommendations of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Department undertakes reviews of claims on all schemes from time to time in order to ensure that people are on the correct rate of payment and that their ancillary allowances are also correct. These reviews include an assessment of whether people continue to satisfy the conditions for entitlement to an ancillary payment where they move between main schemes, such as when a person moves from a disability payment to a jobseeker's payment.

The Department recently issued letters to a small number of PCB customers with regard to their entitlements. As is appropriate, these letters outlined the purpose of the review and the potential consequences that might arise once a review is completed. In writing to customers, the Department incorrectly indicated a disqualification from the living alone allowance. In fact, when a person with a living alone allowance moves from an illness or invalidity payment to PCB, his or her living alone payment is also adjusted to 50%, 75% or 100% in the same manner as the underlying payment. It was an error. I am sorry for any upset it may have caused anybody. It was an error to say that the payment would be completely disallowed. It was not. Nobody has lost out because of this error. We have corrected the oversight and people will continue on as normal. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue.

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