Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 310: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will immediately overhaul the application and review process for domiciliary care allowance. [14333/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Domiciliary care allowance (DCA) can be paid in respect of children under 16 years of age who have a disability so severe that it requires the child needing care and attention and/or supervision substantially in excess of another child of the same age. This care and attention must be given by another person, effectively full-time, so that the child can deal with the activities of daily living. The child must be likely to require this level of care and attention for at least 12 months.

Eligibility for the DCA is not based primarily on the medical or psychological condition, but on the resulting lack of function of body or mind necessitating the degree of extra care and attention required. Each application is assessed on an individual basis taking account of the evidence submitted. No specific condition or disability rules a child in or out of qualifying for the allowance.

Prior to the transfer of the DCA scheme from the HSE in 2009, an expert medical group examined the scheme and made recommendations on how it should operate within the Department of Social Protection. These recommendations included the need for a review process and the minimum term that should apply to such reviews. A review policy in an integral part of all social welfare schemes and is necessary to ensure that payments continue to be made only to those customers who meet the qualifying conditions.

Domiciliary care allowance (DCA) cases are routinely reviewed to ensure that all the conditions for receipt of the payment continue to be met. Cases are reviewed based on either a scheduled review on the recommendation of the medical assessor when the claim is initially processed or on information received about a change of circumstances which potentially affects the continued entitlement of a case already in payment.

Scheduled reviews, on the recommendation of the medical assessor, are based on the prognosis of the child's disability and how their care needs may change over time. Customers who are reviewed are asked to provide relevant up-to-date medical evidence and details of the additional care needs of their child vis-À-vis a child of the same age who does not have their disability. This information is assessed by a medical advisor and a decision is made based on the medical opinion they provide. Where payment is stopped as a result of a review, the customer is invited to submit any further information they may wish to have considered and that information is further examined and/or they may appeal the decision directly to the Social Welfare Appeals office.

The operation of the scheme is monitored on an on-going basis and any improvements to the delivery of service that are identified are implemented. There is no proposal to discontinue the routine reviews of entitlement to DCA.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 311: To ask the Minister for Social Protection, in view of the review of domiciliary care allowance that is being progressed at present, which is ignoring the medical advice of children's general practitioners and other medical experts and educational experts involved in working with and treating children, if any payments that have been stopped will be reinstated immediately. [14335/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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DCA is a monthly payment to the parent/guardian of a child with a disability so severe that the child requires care and attention and/or supervision substantially in excess of another child of the same age. This care and attention must be provided to allow the child to deal with the activities of daily living. The child must be likely to require this level of care and attention for at least 12 months.

Individual DCA cases are routinely reviewed to ensure that the conditions for receipt of the payment continue to be met. Reviews are initiated with the parent/guardian being asked to complete a "review of medical criteria form", which also requires medical input from the child's GP. The parent/guardian returns this form, together with any additional recent reports of ongoing medical or therapeutic services the child may be receiving. This information is then sent for review by one of the Department's medical assessors who will provide an opinion to the deciding officer on whether the child continues to meet the medical criteria for receipt of the payment.

The decision of the deciding officer is communicated to the customer in writing and they are given the option to appeal to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. Any new or additional information received after the issue of the revised decision and before the appeal is heard, is further assessed by a medical assessor. In this way, the review process affords parents/guardians every opportunity to provide additional information from any source they wish and to have this information assessed at an early stage with payment restored, where necessary, without the necessity of an appeal hearing. My Department is committed to ensuring that those children who meet the conditions for the scheme will continue to receive the payment.