Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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90. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the reason for the deduction in the case of a person (details supplied). [46908/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department is obliged to recover debt owed to it as quickly as possible, having due regard to the circumstances of the debtor.

The person concerned has an outstanding carer’s allowance (CA) debt of €22,224.42 which the Department is recovering by way of €50.00 weekly deductions from her CA payment.

The person concerned was refunding the debt by weekly deductions of €30 commencing 13 November 2014. Following proposals from the Department to increase the amount of the weekly deduction to €100 per week, agreement was reached with the person concerned to increase the deductions to €50 per week and deductions at this level have been made from her CA payment since January 2015.

If the person in question feels they are unable to sustain that level of deduction at this point, it is open to her to request a reduction of the weekly amount being refunded by applying to the Department and providing details of her weekly income and outgoings to support her request.