Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1895. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if social protection payments to persons who refused to take up or present a public services card are accruing; if their backdated payments will be paid to them; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38549/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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In 2005, the Government approved a rules based standard for establishing and authenticating an individual’s identity for the purposes of access to public services. This standard is known as the Standard Authentication Framework environment – or SAFE. A person who successfully completes a SAFE 2 registration process (i.e., verifies their identity to a substantial level of assurance) is issued with a Public Services Card (PSC).

In the case of the Department of Social Protection’s own services, the legislation governing identity verification for existing claimants is set out in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended, viz.

- Section 247C(1) of the Act provides that the Minister may require any person receiving a benefit to satisfy the Minister as to his or her identity;

- Section 247C(2) of the Act specifies the consequences of failure to satisfy the Minister in relation to identity as required, specifically that a person shall be disqualified from receiving a benefit;

- Section 247C(3) of the Act specifies the manner in which the Minister may be so satisfied; in effect, this Section describes the process for registering a person’s identity - this is the SAFE 2 Process.

In other words, this legislation requires a person to satisfy the Minister as to their identity and allows disqualification from receipt of a benefit in the event that it is not done. It is not possible for a person to satisfy the Minister as to his or her identity without being SAFE 2 registered.

The Department makes every effort to facilitate a person undertaking a SAFE 2 registration. Firstly, customers are invited to a scheduled registration appointment. The Department also issues reminder letters to customers, as required. Customers may book a different time/date to suit them, either online via www.mywelfare.ie, by contacting the Department’s offices, or by walking in to ask for the next available appointment. The process takes about 15 minutes to complete, once all required documents are presented. If a person is unable to attend an appointment due to challenges relating to age, mobility or disability, the Department will make alternative arrangements. These can include, where appropriate, postal registration methods or mobile SAFE registration facilities at group and community settings or, in exceptional circumstances, individually. In this context, I want to make it clear that customers who face bona fide challenges to in-person attendance will not be disadvantaged, in terms of access to payments and/or availing of Free Travel entitlements.

The Department does not collect data on the number of individuals who currently, or who, at any point in time, have had a payment stopped by reason of failing to complete the SAFE 2 registration process. This data is fluid in nature. For example, a considerable number of customers who have a payment or entitlement suspended subsequently decide to complete the SAFE2 process and have their payment or entitlement reinstated and backdated to the date of suspension. It should be noted that of the remainder, a considerable portion do not make any contact with the Department at all. The decision to stop a payment is never made lightly. However, where a customer does not “satisfy the Minister in relation to identity” as per the legislative requirements, a payment can be disqualified. In advance of any such disqualification, the Department makes every effort to engage with the customer to explain the legislative basis for the SAFE 2 registration process and the consequences of potential disqualification. Where a payment has been disqualified and the customer subsequently successfully completes the SAFE 2 registration process, their payment will be reinstated by the Department (assuming they continue to meet all qualifying criteria for that payment) from the date of compliance.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.