Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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295. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will review the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7312/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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It is a condition for receipt of carer’s allowance (CA) that the carer must be providing full-time care and attention to a person requiring that level of care. CA claims are reviewed periodically to ensure continued entitlement.

CA was in payment to the person concerned from 22 January 2015 and a review was carried out in 2016. 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.

As a result of this investigation, it was determined that carer was not providing care on a full-time basis and her entitlement to CA ceased from 21 April 2016. An overpayment of €2,618 was also assessed against her.

The person concerned appealed this decision and the case was submitted to the Social Welfare Appeals Office for determination. An appeals officer (AO), having fully considered all of the available evidence, disallowed the appeal but decided that the date of disallowance took effect from 23 June 2016 and that therefore no overpayment arose.

The person concerned was notified on 11 January of the AO’s decision and the reasons for it. She was further notified on 25 January 2017 that the debt arising from the overpayment was cancelled.

Under Social Welfare legislation, the decision of an Appeals Officer that someone is not entitled to a social welfare payment can only be revised by another Appeals Officer in the light of new evidence or new facts.

Following the receipt of new evidence from the person concerned, the Social Welfare Appeals Office reviewed the file on 26 January 2017, but there was no change to the original Appeals Officer’s decision.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.