Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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654. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will receive their enhanced illness benefit payment. [34420/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department received an Enhanced Illness Benefit claim from the person concerned on the 21st March 2022. This claim was awarded and a payment of €350.00 issued to him on the 28th March 2022, paying him for the duration of his medical certificate.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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655. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will receive their enhanced illness benefit payment. [34422/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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There was a delay in processing the Enhanced Illness Benefit claim from the person concerned as it overlapped with payment she received of Jobseeker's Benefit. The monetary difference between the associated claim payment and her Enhanced Illness Benefit entitlement needed to be calculated before any payments due to her could issue.

Her Enhanced Illness Benefit claim has now been awarded, and a payment of €259.40 has issued to her paying her for the duration of her medical certificate.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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656. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of claims submitted and the number of persons who have received enhanced illness benefit for Covid-19; the number of persons who were in payment for two, four, six, eight and ten weeks, respectively; the number of persons who transferred over to illness benefit after the ten-week payment period had expired; the number of these claims that were in payment for more than two weeks; the number that was transferred over to disability allowance after the ten-week payment period had expired; the number of these claims that were in payment for more than two weeks; the number of such claims that were rejected or pending; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34470/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Enhanced Illness Benefit (EIB) is a form of Illness Benefit that is payable to self-employed persons or an employee who is told to self-isolate or has been diagnosed with Covid-19. It is important to note that a person may have received Enhanced Illness Benefit on more than one occasion since the payment was introduced, and thus have more than one claim for Enhanced illness Benefit. The number of claims received and the individuals claiming EIB up to June 24th 2022 are provided in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of EIB Claims and EIB Recipients

EIB is payable for up to 10 weeks where a person is diagnosed with Covid-19. In a case where a person continues to be ill beyond 10 weeks, standard Illness Benefit may be paid for an extended period, based on the person’s continued eligibility. Details on the duration of EIB claims are set out in Table 2. The data in Table 2 refers to the claim duration, based on the certification dates.

Table 2: EIB claim durations

Of the 6,906 claims with a total certification period of 10 or more weeks, these relate to 5,291 individuals, of whom 3,783 transferred to Illness Benefit payments, and were certified for 2 or more weeks. 93 persons who had at least one EIB claim of more than 10 weeks duration are now in receipt of Disability Allowance. A total of 50 people had a Disability Allowance claim rejected, while 18 people had Disability Allowance claims pending as of mid-June 2022.