Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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195. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the status of a person’s (details supplied) appeal for carer's allowance; and when they can expect a decision on their case. [32607/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Department periodically reviews claims in payment to ensure that there is continued entitlement.

Carer’s allowance (CA) was in payment to the person concerned from 13 July 2007 and a review was recently carried out. As part of that review the matter was referred to a local social welfare inspector (SWI) to assess the level of care being provided, assess means and confirm that all the conditions for receipt of carer’s allowance continued to be satisfied.

My Department takes the view that full-time care and attention does not necessarily mean 24 hours in each day. Full-time care and attention can be considered to apply where there is an ongoing and daily commitment by the carer and which also generally results in the carer not being able to support him/herself through normal full-time employment.

The outcome of the review was that it was decided that the level of care being provided no longer reached the level of full-time care.

The person concerned was notified on 6 October 2016 that payment was being stopped from 12 October 2016.

As part of a review of that decision, the matter is currently with a local social welfare inspector (SWI) to re-examine the level of care being provided. Once the SWI has reported, the person concerned will be notified directly of the outcome of the review.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.