Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the legislation stands, if a deciding officer or an appeals officer revises an earlier decision, he or she has considerable flexibility regarding the date from which the revised decision takes effect. Apart from a small number of situations, such as cases in which a person knowingly makes a false statement or withholds relevant information or cases in which a payment is reduced due to a revised decision, the legislation provides that the revised decision will take effect from the date considered appropriate by the deciding officer, having regard to the circumstances of the case. This gives us, as I said, considerable flexibility to award a decision from any appropriate date. If there is a change in circumstance, the date of the revised decision will depend on the individual case, and it is not limited in the legislation. However, in the case of a person who makes a claim for the first time, there are fixed time limits with regard to how far a claim can be backdated. These vary according to the particular payment - for example, a person in general would be expected to apply for a jobseeker's payment immediately and payment would not normally be backdated to before the date of the claim, but some other payments, such as contributory State pensions, can be backdated for up to six months.

The amendments we are discussing today will have the effect of bringing more cases into the new claims category rather than the category of revision of an earlier decision. These amendments will give greater protection against the possibility of arrears being awarded against the State in some cases. I want to reiterate that if the original decision was found to be erroneous then a backdated decision is still possible. The proposed amendments do not change that.