Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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82. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on the decision by many general practitioner practices to charge persons who are in receipt of illness benefit for certificates relating to the benefit; her plans to work with the Minister for Health to rectify the situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53481/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Illness Benefit is a scheme under which people who are unable to work due to illness or injury are entitled to receive a weekly payment from the Social Insurance fund.

The basic rate of payment for a single person is €198 per week. Entitlement to the payment, which may be made for a period of up to two years, is contingent on a person’s social insurance record and been certified by their General practitioner (GP) as being unfit for work.

I would like to be clear that, nothing has changed with the transfer to the new system, as before, patients do not need to pay a fee to receive these medical certificate from their GP, as the Department pays the doctor an agreed fee to provide them.

Should any person seeking to make a claim for Illness Benefit or another scheme experience a difficulty in getting their medical certificate from their GP, we would ask them to notify the Department directly.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputies.