Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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511. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of cases in which a late claim for a social protection payment was backdated due to incorrect information having been supplied by his Department, in each of the years 2010 to 2015. [9902/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Deciding officers can elect to backdate claims where considered appropriate, taking account of the specific circumstances of a claim. However, data on the types of decision sought by the Deputy is not available.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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512. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the maximum period of backdated payments which his Department will make where persons are unaware of their entitlements; and the amount of money which has been saved by his Department due to restrictions on backdating late claims under all schemes for each year from 2010 to 2015. [9903/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Deciding officers can elect to backdate claims where considered appropriate, taking account of the circumstances of the claim. Provided the relevant customer proves, to the satisfaction of the Deciding Officer, that there was good cause for the delay in making a claim and the customer was entitled to payment from the earlier date, the officer may backdate a claim for up to 6 months.

However, lack of knowledge by itself is not regarded as a sufficient reason for not claiming on time. The Department publishes information as widely as possible and advertises changes of legislation in the National Press. Information Offices are available throughout the country for people to make enquiries as to their entitlements.

Where there is a reasonable explanation for backdating a claim, this can be accepted by the relevant deciding officer. Statistics are not available on levels of savings to the Department where there are cases where a claim is not backdated.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.