DISABILITY ALLOWANCE CLAIMS WHEN HAVING BREAST CANCER

Last reply: 08 March 2013 17:48

I'm just wondering if other people are experiencing long delays in having their disability allowance claims dealt with by the dept of social protection. (have no entitlement to disability benefit as not enough relevant stamps now). I sent mine in after my surgery in Aug.2012 as I didn't even have time to think about things like money when I was hit with a cancer diagnosis. Fast forward and its now over 7 months later and last I was told was maybe April 2013 I might hear something.

There are also secondary benefits like support with fuel, travel etc. which I couldn't access this winter as my claim has to be approved first.

I'm finding it hard coping with the long delay and feel surely I can't be on my own. The dept says they are dealing with claims by date sent in.
Just curious how others finding the system.

5 comments

Comments

commented by youngk

04 March 2013

04 March 2013 16:15

It's an appalling state of affairs, I remember being so worried about money I did not have time to concentrate on my illness and getting better!
It took 6 months to get my disability allowance when I applied in 2011, but I did get supplementary welfare allowance from the welfare officer whilst I was waiting for it (they deduct the supplementary welfare allowance from any arrears in your disability allowance when you finally get it) put in an application for fuel allowance and household benefit package now too as they will get backdated when your disability allowance is granted.

Karen

commented by encee

04 March 2013

04 March 2013 23:25

Hi Sunshine
It is a right pain in the ass alright. I was diagnosed beginning Feb 2011, applied for Illness Benefit the end of that month, it took until April, after my surgery and before starting chemotherapy for me to find out that I was not entitled as I was short 4 weeks stamps as I had given up work for a while of my own accord and didn't claim stamps at the time. So I got diddly squat from that!
So then I applied for Disability Allowance - they looked bank statements and forms to be filled in every few months before it was decided that my husband was earning too much for me to qualify. Trust me, we are one of the many so called middle income families... if so, we are at the lower end of the middle income! So I had no income for 2011, with the except of the month of January before I gave up work. I didn't apply for the Supplementary Allowance as I had borrowed money from my family, being cock-sure that I was going to be able to pay it back when my Disability came through as I just hadn't the will to go to the Community Welfare Officer... pride is an awful thing!
However, as soon as 2012 kicked in, I started getting some Illness Benefit - it certainly wouldn't cover all the bills but it was definitely better than a kick in the head!
I don’t know about your personal circumstances but if you have a mortage and haven’t done so already, it might be worth your while to get in touch with the people that provided your insurance to go with your mortgage - I got a bit of money off the crowd we are with, again, because I was the low income earner in our house, I didn't get a lot but it got us over Christmas that year when it got sorted out.
I can’t remember from your previous posts if you are single but I do know you have family so the following may not be relevant to you but may be of interest to others. If you or your partner have paid PRSI/PAYE last year, then it might be worth submitting your medical expenses through Revenue’s MED1. (It can be downloaded from www.revenue.ie) So this year you can claim for 2012. What we do every year is get all our doctor’s and prescription receipts together, and claim tax back on them. Some people do it through their private health insurers but we find that by doing it ourselves on the MED1, they also give us tax back on overpayment of icome tax also, so it can be a lovely little windfall which we use to pay our home and car insurance and tax the car too. Last year, I also sent in an itemised list of the days and reasons for travelling to hospital and it looks like I got some money back for that but it’s hard to figure it out how exactly the tax refund is broken down. FYI, tax refunds can be claimed as far back as 4 years so might be worth looking into.
And Karen is right about writing to the Disability Allowance section asking them to include you in getting the fuel allowance and household package backdated to the date of your original application.
Either way, it might just prompt them to see what the craic is with your application. If you do want to see how it is progressing you can ring them, or you could always get in touch with your local political representative and ask them to look into it for you and see if they can get it progressed any further?
Hope it works out soon for you x

commented by sunshine71

07 March 2013

07 March 2013 09:30

thanks for your replies. I've done a lot of work on this but hitting brick walls. I've been to my local TD and literally got nowhere in the end. I did get it raised at Question and Answer time in the Dail with Joan Burton but its the same old, same old. All disability allowance applications are dealt with by date regardless of condition, which is fair enough I suppose. But there is a huge backlog at present. I have rung numerous times just to ensure I'm not forgotten about and I have also kept sending in additional information as my treatments/side effects progress to support my claim. So they now have my medical history from June '12 to March '13 to work on.

Its just so annoying that social welfare is there as a support but in reality you can't get it until THEY decide to deal with your paperwork. In reality that means we are down a lot of money a week and couldn't avail of the household benefits package to get help with our heating etc during the winter until my disability allowance claim is first dealt with, as its a qualifying condition. They say it will be backdated in time but my argument is that cancer waits for no-one, not even social protection. When you are having treatments, loosing hair, feeling the cold etc. its NOW you need support not in 7/8 months time. Borrowing money from a credit union etc. is also a no for us at present as credit unions now operate under the Financial Regulator so you have to have 'income' to support your loan application (not just a good track record) which is a catch 22 as I'm waiting on a decision on social welfare.

Bit of a rant but its been the bain of my life the last few months. Its been hard going having cancer but having all the financial worry on top is just so stressful. If it was just me on my own I might cope better but its the guilt I feel (know I shouldn't but I do) for putting my children through this really rough time both from a medical and financial point of view. RANT OVER....but suppose here is a safe place to let it out. thanks

commented by youngk

07 March 2013

07 March 2013 09:40

I feel for you and I feel the same way. I did get supplementary welfare allowance, but it was less than the disability allowance and I am still arguing that they should backdate the difference since oct 2011 so it is well past the date they should have dealt with it even allowing for the backlog . They have ignored all my requests to deal with it saying on the phone that they will write, but never actually doing so. I also tried my TD, but they ignored him too. In addition to that I tried placing a claim with social welfare appeals office but they sent it straight back to disability as I had no written 'decision' from them to appeal, in other words I say there are arrears due, my local social welfare inspector says there are arrears due but if the disability section ignores me there is no decision to appeal and I get nothing!