Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding payments in respect of persons (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10907/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Section 248 (2) of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 (the Act) states that where a person who is in receipt of a benefit which includes an increase in respect of a qualified adult, or where the spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is in receipt of any benefit in his or her own right, dies, payment of the benefit shall continue to be made for 6 weeks after the date of death and shall, during that period, be made to the person and subject to the conditions that may be prescribed.

For the purposes of the Act, a “cohabitant” means a cohabitant within the meaning of section 172(1) of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 i.e. one of 2 adults (whether of the same or the opposite sex) who live together as a couple in an intimate and committed relationship and who are not related to each other within the prohibited degrees of relationship or married to each other or civil partners of each other.

The former partner of the person concerned was paid disability allowance from 17 March 1999 to 21 February 2012. His last payment was on 15 February 2012, the date of his death.

The person in question was not being paid as an adult dependent on the disability allowance application since November 2011. The person in question applied for jobseeker’s allowance on 15 November 2011 and she stated on her application form that she was single. Prior to that she had been living with her partner, who is now deceased, who had been in receipt of disability allowance and who had been paid a qualified adult allowance for her and an increase in respect of their two children.

When the person’s jobseeker’s allowance claim was being investigated she informed the social welfare investigator that she was separated from her partner and that he was living at a different address and she supplied the investigator with evidence to support this contention. She was awarded jobseeker’s allowance at the maximum rate plus an increase in respect of her two qualified children.

In these circumstances, it is considered that the person in question cannot be considered to have been cohabiting with her former partner (now deceased) at the time of his death and, consequently, that she is not entitled to 6 weeks payment of disability allowance after the date of his death.

In the absence of any instruction to the contrary from the former partner of the person in question, she remained as the agent appointed to collect the disability allowance payment. It is considered that this is a matter between the person in question and her former partner (R.I.P.) and that it has no material bearing on the status of the person in question or the alleged entitlement to 6 weeks payment after death.