Dublin South West Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, today called on Social Welfare Minister Joan Burton to explain why a whopping 60% of applications for the Carer\u2019s Allowance were refused last year.<\/p>\n
Crowe was speaking after figures emerged that almost 2 out of every 3 applications for the Carers Allowance were refused in the last year. This is despite the Minister claiming there had been no change of policy by the Government in relation to administering the applications.<\/p>\n
Deputy Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe figures are there for everyone to see in black and white.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been a very worrying trend developing in the Department of Social Protection since this Minister assumed office. I met people every week in my constituency office, and in the community here in Dublin South West, that are being refused the Carers Allowance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are confused, at a loss, and in despair, at the fact they have been for some unknown reason refused this small allowance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough a small allowance, it can and does make such a big influence on how they care for and look after their sick or elderly loved one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs the Minister really going to stand by her claim that there has not been a directive to reduce the number of these payments being granted?<\/p>\n
\u201cI have seen a massive upturn in the number of distressed members of the public coming to me to express their concern at the mind-set that refuses or delays applications.<\/p>\n
“It doesn\u2019t seem to make a whit of a difference when applying for a Carers Allowance, even if is to care for a loved one who has a serious, long or life threatening illness<\/p>\n
\u201cUp to May this year, there is an average wait of 32 weeks for applicants to hear the Department\u2019s decision, which is also unacceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis government of broken promises has continuously targeted the most vulnerable people and the lack of an adequate explanation has added insult to injury.<\/p>\n
“The Minister needs to bring a bit of honesty to this debate and tell us exactly what is happening in her Department, and what has led to this massive amount of refusals and lengthy delays.”<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dublin South West Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, today called on Social Welfare Minister Joan Burton to explain why a whopping 60% of applications for the Carer\u2019s Allowance were refused last year. Crowe was speaking after figures emerged that almost 2 out of every 3 applications for the Carers Allowance were refused in the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,44,23,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carers-allowance","category-health","category-local","category-social-protection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}