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12/11/2012
700 OAPs Paid Household Benefit Package Despite Living In Care Homes
Hundreds of pensioners have had free TV licence, electricity and phone allowances suspended after they were found to be living in a nursing home.
The discovery has raised concerns that the allowances were being used in some cases by relatives, such as grown-up children, who were still living in the family home.
The household benefits package, which costs €406m per year and is paid to all pensioners over 70 regardless of their income, is expected to be targeted by the Government in the forthcoming Budget.
Social welfare inspectors discovered that 700 elderly people in total were being paid their free TV licence, electricity and phone allowance even though they were no longer living in their own home.
This meant that they were getting no benefit from the package -- and that needless payments were being made by the department to companies like the ESB, Eircom and An Post.
The Department of Social Protection has admitted there may have been "other persons" living in the house.
The department had carried out checks on 1,000 pensioners in total in 2010 that it suspected of being in a nursing home.
As a result, 700 pensioners had their household benefit packages suspended. It is the first time the results of the operation have been revealed.
The department said the problem arose because the elderly people had failed to notify the department they were moving to a nursing home.
"This can often be due to genuine serious illness, old age and resulting oversight and is seldom as a result of a deliberate attempt to defraud the department," a spokeswoman said.
The department achieved savings of €645,000 -- based on the estimated loss it would have suffered if the problem had not been detected.
It did not seek any refunds from the pensioners who were now in nursing homes.
And it did not seek any refunds from companies like the ESB, Bord Gais, Eircom and An Post who get paid millions of euros to provide the free allowances under the household benefits package.
(H/GK)
The discovery has raised concerns that the allowances were being used in some cases by relatives, such as grown-up children, who were still living in the family home.
The household benefits package, which costs €406m per year and is paid to all pensioners over 70 regardless of their income, is expected to be targeted by the Government in the forthcoming Budget.
Social welfare inspectors discovered that 700 elderly people in total were being paid their free TV licence, electricity and phone allowance even though they were no longer living in their own home.
This meant that they were getting no benefit from the package -- and that needless payments were being made by the department to companies like the ESB, Eircom and An Post.
The Department of Social Protection has admitted there may have been "other persons" living in the house.
The department had carried out checks on 1,000 pensioners in total in 2010 that it suspected of being in a nursing home.
As a result, 700 pensioners had their household benefit packages suspended. It is the first time the results of the operation have been revealed.
The department said the problem arose because the elderly people had failed to notify the department they were moving to a nursing home.
"This can often be due to genuine serious illness, old age and resulting oversight and is seldom as a result of a deliberate attempt to defraud the department," a spokeswoman said.
The department achieved savings of €645,000 -- based on the estimated loss it would have suffered if the problem had not been detected.
It did not seek any refunds from the pensioners who were now in nursing homes.
And it did not seek any refunds from companies like the ESB, Bord Gais, Eircom and An Post who get paid millions of euros to provide the free allowances under the household benefits package.
(H/GK)
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