Dublin South West TD, Seán Crowe, has called on the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, to urgently resolve the standoff between her Department and organisations representing Doctors over new claim forms that they are being asked to fill in as part of the new system required for the illness and injury benefit schemes.

The Sinn Féin TD claims that the Minister has made a mess of changes to the application process for illness benefit and he claims this will inevitably impact on applicants.

Illness benefit is currently payable to those who cannot work due to illness or injury, once they have the necessary PRSI contributions and fill the criteria for the payment.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“The new illness and injury benefit scheme introduced last week without any pre-publicity or prior notice now requires two forms to be filled in, one by the applicant and the other one by the applicant’s Doctor.  The old MC1 form has now been replaced by a new claim form called IB1 and a new medical certificate called MED1. Both forms are said to be available through local GPs.

“Unfortunately Minister Regina Doherty’s new illness and injury application system would appear to have hit a wall and my worry is that applicants who are stuck in the middle of this row will be the losers.

“Whatever about the merits or advantage of these changes it seems absolutely bonkers to introduce such changes with any prior consultation with any of the organisations representing Doctors. It seems even more bizarre that the applicants for the scheme were also not informed until they discovered there was a problem.

“Doctors are claiming that there is now a significant amount of work involved in the changeover and that it is not achievable at local level at such short notice.

“Apparently the IMO and NAGP are planning to meet the Department to try to sort out the mess, but until that happens the doctors are returning all of the new forms to the Department of Employment and Social Protection.

“The Doctors are also claiming that they intend to continue issuing the old certificates in accordance with the contract they have with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection until a satisfactory solution is found.

“For patients who are ill – some of them very seriously ill – to discover that their illness benefits forms are being floated back and forth is deeply disturbing as they are caught up, through no fault of their own, in a row between Doctors and the Government.”

Crowe continued:

“I am calling on Minister Regina Doherty to break her silence and let applicants know why there was no consultation with the NAGP or IMO before this rushed changeover was introduced and what progress if any has been made to resolve this dispute.

“She also needs to settle concerns and tell recipients if her Department will accept the old certificates from doctors and if the new arrangements will have any impact or delay in the payment of the illness benefits

“Unfortunately this is not the first time that we have seen a situation like this involving the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection as the announcement of the extension of Dental Benefits to the self-employed caused a similar difficulty with dentists last year.”

ENDS