Medical Card

Ladjacket

I was working up until September when I got laid off - my medical card expired in September also, they had refused my renewal based on my wages from the job, €9 an hour for 35 hours a week - said i earned too much.

I called them back and informed them that I was now laid off and that i was not getting any income at all - so I was told i would be refused as i did not earn anything - no social welfare at all.

Due to a medical issue, i have been signed off on illness benefit since 2 weeks ago, I told the medical card dept of this and the lady told me that when I got the letter from Social Protection advising that my illness benefit had been approved that all I needed to do was contact them with this info and they would process things from there.

When I called today I was told that as there was a change in my circumstances, i need to send in a letter from the old employer saying I no longer am employed there as well as a bank statement.

When I was working I tried my best to put away a few euro where possible but the bank statement will probably show I have 'too much' - (about 3k)

I need the medical card now as I regularly get blood tests and attend the doctor, yet during the week there my friend who works in Dublin for a company getting 700 euro a week was showing me his lovely new medical card renewed for another 2 years - how is this even possible?

Kristopherus

Re your friend, will you report him?????

Re your own situation, when you have a mixture of income, i.e work & social welfare, the two incomes are added and then divided by the no of weeks to arrive at an average income. In your case that average will be reducing all the time that you are off work. When you get confirmation from DSW, send a copy to the medical card office & you should be good to go !

Ladjacket

Kristopherus wrote: »

Re your friend, will you report him?????

Re your own situation, when you have a mixture of income, i.e work & social welfare, the two incomes are added and then divided by the no of weeks to arrive at an average income. In your case that average will be reducing all the time that you are off work. When you get confirmation from DSW, send a copy to the medical card office & you should be good to go !

No, i won't be reporting anyone - my anger is directed at the system that allows this to take place in the first instance.

Seconfdly, thanks for your advice - i am just worried that as I said to pay the illness benefit into bank account, and they want to see a bank statement, that they will decree i have too much money to be entitled to medical card

Kristopherus

The income guidelines are available at http://www.hse.ie/portal/eng/services/Find_a_Service/entitlements/Medical_Cards/.

There is a fairly high disregard for savings. I think it is €10,000.00 for a single person and double that for a couple.