FIT AND HEALTHY AND LIVING OFF ILLNESS BENEFIT
Payments to thousands stopped... but only after a medical review
THOUSANDS of people claiming sick pay after a doctor’s examination were actually fit for work, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal.
It was only after a medical review by doctors for the Department of Social Protection that they were deemed capable of working.
As many as 2,138 fit and healthy workers claimed under the taxpayer-funded scheme intended to help those genuinely out of work due to illness, between the start of last year and this November.
While the State pays as much a €198 for those off work because they are sick, many companies pay their full wages.
Another 219 who were getting the benefit cancelled their claim after being
summoned for an ‘in-person medical assessment’, according to the figures from the Department of Social Protection, which cover the start of 2017 to this November.
Business leaders now say it is time for the Government to tackle the problem of people diagnosing their medical complaint to their own GPs and getting sick notes.
Irish Small and Medium Enterprise chief Neil McDonnell said the system needs to be reformed as there is now a ‘significant disincentive’ to join the workforce. Calling for more independent verification of the system, he said: ‘Logically, it doesn’t make sense that people are going to their own doctor to get sick notes to claim the benefit.
‘While we appreciate the potential difficulties doctors could have with declaring some patients who present in the clinics to be fit for work, it is apparent from some of the figures that there is an element
of self-diagnosis by patients. It is clearly not a good practice that patients can attend their own practitioner. There should be defined occupational health practitioners approved by the Department examining people wishing to claim.’
Some 209,384 Illness Benefit claims were received by the department last year, with just over €599million paid out by the State. Some of the most common illnesses claimed for include depression, stress, back and neck problems, arthritis, bereavement, post-natal depression, cancer and hyper-tension.
There were 18,664 reviews of claimants by the department last year, with 1,198 found ineligible of the payment and their claims stopped.
An estimated 141 cancelled their claims after being notified that they were to undergo an in-person medical assessment.
As many as 14,495 reviews have been carried out so far this year to the end of November, with 940 people being deemed fit to work and a further 78 claimants cancelling their claim when they were told they would undergo a medical exam.
Those applying for Illness Benefit must get their GP or a hospital doctor to fill out a form indicating why they can’t work due to sickness.
The claims then have to be approved by the department and can be reviewed with the claimant called to undergo an assessment by a doctor for the department. If they don’t attend, their benefit will be
suspended. But if the pay is stopped after the assessment they can appeal the decision.
The total State expenditure on Illness Benefit so far this year to the end of October came to €509million, with 180,945 claims received.
In 2016 there were 209,685 claims, costing €597million, and the previous year there were 209,750, costing €620million.
Mr McDonnell said Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty must reconsider the entire Illness Benefit policy.
The department said in a statement that all Illness Benefit claims are subject to both administrative checks
and reviews and it rejected Mr McDonnell’s assertion that there are disincentives to working.
It said: ‘Analysis of incentive effects have shown that the social protection system retains incentives to “make work pay”. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection continues to keep its operation of the system under review to ensure that this remains the case including introducing a twoyear limit on Illness Benefit
claims. This is borne out by the fact that, despite the rapid increase in employment in recent years, the absolute number of people receiving Illness Benefit has stayed relatively stable and fallen as a percentage of the workforce.
‘At the end of November 2018, there were 55,135 people in receipt of Illness Benefit. This compared with approximately 60,000 five years earlier in 2013.
‘A person cannot claim both Illness Benefit and Jobseeker’s Benefit concurrently. When a person claims Illness Benefit they are stating that they are unable to work due to their illness. When they recover from their illness and they do not have a job to return to, they can apply for a Jobseeker’s payment.’
Minister Doherty apologised to recipients of Illness Benefit at the start of November after it emerged that significant numbers of recipients were not receiving their payments as expected due to issues with a new computer system.
The system was ‘unforgiving’ and caused ‘lots of difficult anomalies’, she said. ‘I apologise to the 55,000 who were distressed by the failure. We have learned an awful lot from what happened.’
Comment – Page 14 michelle.o’keeffe@dailymail.ie
‘An element of self-diagnosis’ Many cancelled claim when called