Adult Dependant

J_P

Hi everyone, first post on boards.ie, would appreciate some help if anyone can give any advice.


I had been signing on Jobseekers Allowance and doing some FAS courses for a number of months after being made unemployed, but recently signed off as I have taken over as my child's primary care giver, as my spouse is unable to manage due to her disability. So, as things currently stand I cannot take up full time employment.

My spouse is on Disability Allowance, and since I now no longer have any income whatsoever we applied to have me added as an Adult Dependant on her claim. We've been told by phone that it could take months before a decision is made.

Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation? Should it take long, and more importantly is there any reason we would be refused the increase for adult dependant? We are struggling to make ends meet at the moment as we only have one Social Welfare payment to support our family.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

danjo-xx

First off waiting times for most claims to DSP can take months, never mind appeals after that. Apply anyway.

Then your first stop should be checking out Supplementary Welfare Allowance, and increase for adult dependent can be paid under this and fairly rapid if you qualify. Its means tested, max savings you can have is 5k. But you have to repay any money you get IF your claim for Disability allowance, dependent adult, called QA is granted out of the arrears money you get. They deduct it automatically.

You contact the DSP rep at your local health centre, used to be called CWO, community welfare officer.

SWA

If you have no income, you may be entitled to the basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance. If your weekly income is below the Supplementary Welfare Allowance rate for your family size, a payment may be made to bring your income up to the appropriate Supplementary Welfare Allowance rate.

If you have claimed a social welfare benefit or pension but it has not yet been paid and you have no other income, you may qualify for Supplementary Welfare Allowance while you are waiting for your payment.

Fred Swanson

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J_P

Thanks very much for the replies guys, appreciate it.

I'll take your advice and will post any developments here afterwards.

J_P

Ok an update on this.

Went to see the Community welfare officer twice. First time he said he had to check that we had made a claim with the Disability section, and even then he said that there is a very good chance they may not accept our application(I cannot understand on what grounds they would refuse it as far as I can see we meet all the conditions set out in their own documentation) and asked us to come back to him after he had a chance to do that.

I came back today and he said when he contacted them there was no record of our application. He also told me there was a Social Welfare Investigator assigned to me(I don't know why and said he didn't know why either)

I later phoned Disability section and they said quite clearly that they received our application weeks ago but as they were only dealing with claims from last September at the moment that it could be months before our application is dealt with.

So now I have some major concerns, hopefully someone with experience of this can put my mind at rest.

Why are two different departments telling me two different things i.e. one saying no record of our claim, the other clearly saying they got it?

Why is the CWO of the opinion that Disability will refuse our claim?

Why has a Social Welfare Investigator been assigned to me and is this normal procedure or only if they believe I have done something illegal?

Really struggling to make ends meet here at the moment, would really appreciate some advice.

wmpdd3

This is only my opinion, but I think the CWO expressed his / her doubt at the DA award as so many are refused and go to appeal. I work with someone who was refused after an amputation, but granted later.

It may be the case that all DA cases are handled by and inspector (as are FIS cases where self-employment is a factor).

If you are still not sure, I say go see the citizens information office with a list of queries and get written answers for them.

Fred Swanson

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J_P

Thanks Fred and wmpdd3.

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Thanks, did not know that. This is an existing DA claim though, my spouse just wants to add me to the claim, is it still the case that they refer this to an inspector? If so at least that's one thing cleared up for me.

Thanks for the help folks, will go to citizens info when I can.