Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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459. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of the invalidity review of a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27480/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The person concerned  applied for invalidity pension in an application received by the Department of Social Protection on 3 August 2021.  The application was disallowed on 9 September 2021.

I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that the person concerned appealed this decision to that Office on 9 November 2021.  The appeal was disallowed by way of a decision of an Appeals Officer on 22 March 2022

On 29 April 2022 new medical evidence was received by the Social Welfare Appeals Office from the person concerned in support of their  appeal. Section 317 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act, 2005 provides that an Appeals Officer may revise any decision of an Appeals Officer where it appears to him or her that the decision was erroneous in the light of new evidence or new facts which have been brought to his or her notice since the date on which the decision was given.  In this regard, an Appeals Officer is currently examining the new evidence in order to decide if a revision of the decision of 22 March 2022 is appropriate.  The person concerned will be advised of the outcome of the appeal as soon as possible. 

The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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460. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a disability allowance payment to a person (details supplied) will be restored. [27481/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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A letter issued to the person concerned on the 6 December 2021 advising that their disability allowance (DA) was being reviewed.  The person concerned was asked to provide details of their income, capital etc.

A reminder letter issued to the person concerned on 13 January 2022 and a final reminder letter was issued on 7 February 2022.

The person concerned did not provide any of the requested information nor make any contact with the Department.  On 24 February 2022, a letter issued advising that their Disability Allowance payment would be suspended from 2 March 2022 as they had failed to respond to the Department.

The requested information was received in the Department from the person concerned on 7 March 2022.  Unfortunately, this reply was overlooked by the Department at that time and their payment remained suspended, and this oversight is regretted.

This claim has now been reviewed and I wish to advise that their Disability Allowance has been reinstated with effect from 2 March 2022.  The next payment will issue to their nominated bank account on 1 June 2022.

Arrears due for the period 2 March 2022 to 1 June 2022 have been issued to their account.  A letter advising of this has issued to the person concerned.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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461. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the average time each application for enhanced illness benefit is taking to process; and if there are delays in processing known to her. [27523/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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COVID Illness Benefit (Enhanced Illness Benefit) is a scheme that was introduced in March 2020, to support people who are incapable of work or who are required to self-isolate, as a result of a COVID diagnosis or being a probable source of infection.  To date a total of 583,994 COVID Illness Benefit related claims have been processed of which 559,131 have received a payment.  

The majority of Illness Benefit claims are automatically processed where an application is received and an e-Cert is submitted by a GP.

Processing statistics for Illness Benefit, which includes Enhanced Illness Benefit, show that 82% of claims are currently being awarded within a week. 

Some claims for Enhanced Illness Benefit require manual intervention and my officials work to clear these claims as quickly as possible.  In other instances delays in the submission of supporting medical certificates can also result in a processing delay.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy. 

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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462. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the ten week backlog in the processing of illness-benefit claims at present (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27539/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The majority of Illness Benefit claims are automatically processed where an application has been received and an e-Cert has been submitted by a GP.

Processing statistics for Illness Benefit, which includes Enhanced Illness Benefit, show that 82% of claims are currently being awarded within a week. 

If the Deputy wishes to provide details of the person concerned I will arrange to have my officials examine the particular case.  

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy. 

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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463. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will advise on a matter raised in correspondence (details supplied) in relation to supports for artists with disabilities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27546/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme which the Government launched in April is a matter for the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. 

The Department of Social Protection provides a range of income supports for people unable to work due to illness or disability.  Disability Allowance and Blind Pension are means tested payments and are structured to support recipients to avail of opportunities to pursue employment, be that self-employment or insurable employment.

When a person in receipt of Disability Allowance commences employment, they can avail of an income disregard of €140 per week.  In addition, 50% of earnings between €140 and €350 are also disregarded for the purpose of the means test.  Income from the Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme will be treated as income from self-employment for the purposes of means tests within the social welfare system and as a result these disregards will apply.

In Budgets 2021 and 2022 I introduced significant changes to allow people to earn more while continuing to keep a greater proportion of their disability payments, specifically:

- the earnings disregard for Disability Allowance and Blind Pension was increased from €120 to €140 a week with effect from June last year;

- from this June, the upper limit of earnings that applies to these schemes will increase from €350 to €375 per week;

- an increase of €5.10 is being applied to the general weekly means disregard entry point for the Disability Allowance from this June.  This increase will bring the entrypoint of the weekly means disregard for Disability Allowance in line with that of the Blind Pension, at €7.60 per week.

My Department's supports and schemes are kept under review to ensure that they continue to meet their objectives.  There are no plans to change the way in which income from the Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme will be treated within the social welfare system or to introduce any additional scheme as proposed by the Deputy.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.