Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, means test and Habitual Residency conditions.

I confirm that my Department received an application for DA from the person concerned on 6 March 2023. The application was referred to a social welfare inspector (SWI) on 9 March 2023 for a report on the person’s means and circumstances.

The SWI requested travel documents for periods out of state and information regarding how the person concerned was supporting themselves. The SWI returned their report on 22 March 2023.

The person called on 17 April 2023, 20 April 2023, 13 June 2023 and 28 June 2023 requesting an update. As documents were not received, the application was unable to be processed.

As the documents were not returned, this was sent to the SWI for further investigation and the SWI returned their second report on 14 November 2023, to advise that they were unable to contact the customer at address as declared as the address was under renovation and appeared vacant.

Based on the evidence supplied in support of this application, their application for DA was disallowed on the grounds that the medical qualifying condition for the scheme was not satisfied, the person concerned's whereabouts are unknown as per the SWI report, means remain undetermined and no decision could be made on the Habitual Residence Conditions.

The person concerned was notified in writing of this decision on 13 December 2023 and was also notified of their right to request a review of this decision or to appeal it to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO).

To date, no further information has been received in support of this claim, and there has not been a request for a review or appeal of the decision.

In the meantime, the person concerned can apply to the Community Welfare Officer for the means tested Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) if they are in need of financial assistance, while awaiting the outcome of their application.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.