The continuing difficulties with illness benefit claims show that the root cause of recent problems with the system have not been addressed.
I have been contacted by many people who have had their payments stopped after the new automated system failed to record receipt of forms that they had already sent in.
The forms concerned are the medical review forms (MR1 forms) which are issued by the Department and must be filled in and returned by recipients within 21 days.
Recipients who received the form, filled it in and returned it well before the 21 day deadline have had their payments stopped by the automated system.
The new computer system in place sends out the MR1 forms automatically and in some cases the forms have been sent out to the same individual multiple times. Other Illness Benefit recipients have been receiving their payments at different and incorrect rates every week which causes huge inconvenience and hardship.
Bank charges for declined direct debit payments must be refunded.
The phone lines in the Illness Benefit Section are seemingly closed, with local Intreo offices unable to get in touch with the Section.
These issue need to be addressed by Minister Doherty immediately. I am concerned that she does not seem to understand fully the impact of delayed payments on individuals and families relying on the payments to help them through extremely difficult times.
In a response to a parliamentary question from my colleague John Brady TD, Minister Doherty stated that ‘no payments have been affected’. This is clearly not the case as individuals continue to be impacted. People relying on Illness Benefit are losing their payments through no fault of their own due to an automated system that is still clearly not functioning.
