Medical card & disability allowance. How would private health insurance affect this?

scrotist

I am able to give my mother private health insurance through my job.

She currently has a medical card and is on disability payments.

If I add her to my health insurance plan, how will this affect the medical card and disability allowance? Will the government cancel these?

hawthorne

Adding your mother to your private health plan could be seen as some sort of benefit/income your mother would suddenly have.

I cannot see that this "income" or whatever you want to call it is that much that it would affect her DA in any way. I am not sure about the medical card.

Unfortunately no one will give you a straight answer- neither SW nor the HSE. If you ask them, both will tell you that they cannot give you a correct answer until the whole thing with all its facts and figures is in writing on their table. From my own experience such a way is full of unnecessary hassle and worries for your mother and most likely would not lead to a withdrawal of the medical card or the DA.

My advice: Go ahead and get your mother included in you plan. And see what happens afterwards. You don't have to report anything to either SW or DA. It is nothing major which could be classified as a "change of circumstances" which would need to be reported.

SourSessions

You can be on a medical card and have private insurance, that isn't an issue. Whether social welfare would consider someone else paying for it a form of income, I'm not sure, but pretty doubtful. It wouldn't be any different from you say paying for Sky TV or something for her. As long as you're not giving her cash or paying ALL her bills, I can't see it being a problem, and as hawthorne said, not a change of circumstances.