Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

182. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding the determination of eligibility in respect of an application for constant attendant allowance in the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15910/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Disablement benefit is one of the benefits payable under the occupational injuries benefit scheme to an insured person who suffers a loss of physical or mental faculty as a result of an occupational accident or a prescribed occupational disease. The person must have been in insurable employment at the time of the accident or the disease was contracted.

Disablement benefit when awarded, may be payable in the form of a gratuity or a pension.

A disablement pensioner who has lost 50% or more of their physical or mental faculty can receive an increase in their pension, where they are so seriously disabled as a result of their occupational injury or diseases that they need someone (a relative or some other person) to help them daily at home to attend to their personal needs for a period of at least 6 months.

This increase is known as a constant attendance allowance (CAA).

A decision on entitlement to the allowance is made with the advice of one of the Department`s medical advisors.

The person concerned was awarded a Disablement pension from 13 December 1985 and applied for CAA in January 2017. The application for CAA has been refused on the grounds that she is not so seriously disabled as a result of her occupational injury that she needs someone to help her daily at home to attend to her personal needs for a period of at least 6 months.

The person concerned was notified on 28 March 2017 of this decision and her right of appeal to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.