John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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137. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the way an overpayment occurred in the case of a person (details supplied); if he will pay in full the amount due to them relative to their carer's allowance claim and deduct €20 per week to cover the debt repayment plan given the financial pressures of the case. [18929/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My department is obliged to recover all debt owed to it as quickly as possible and within the relevant legislation and guidelines governing the recovery of debt. The person concerned has an outstanding debt due to my department and proposals on its recovery have been made to her.

The debt arose during the period from 28 April 2014 to 14 October 2014 while the person concerned was in receipt of a jobseeker’s allowance and was caused by her claiming payment in respect of an increase for a qualified adult to which she was not entitled.

The person concerned was offered the opportunity to comment on the recovery proposals.

The person concerned responded on 22 June 2016 with her comments. Having taken these comments into account, my Department has decided to deduct €20.00 per week from her carer’s allowance weekly payment from 7 July 2016. Furthermore, the Department proposes to withhold some of the arrears due against the debt. Accordingly, the sum of €1,000 is being withheld and the balance of arrears due will issue to the person in question shortly.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.