Mentally ill woman gets €60k in back welfare payments

MENTALLY ill patients who had their welfare payments stopped when they were admitted to psychiatric hospitals could be eligible for repayments totalling hundreds of thousands of euro following a landmark court settlement.

Both the Department of Health and the Department of Social and Family Affairs insisted last night that, because the case was settled without admission of liability on their part, it had no repercussions outside of the individual plaintiff. However, legal observers said the case could be used by other patients to make similar claims.

The case was taken by a woman, identified only as EOR, who has acute schizophrenia and has been in full-time psychiatric care for 25 years. She was yesterday granted a sum of €60,000 in settlement of her claim for back payment of the Disabled Persons Maintenance Allowance and its successor, the Disability Allowance, after arguing the State was wrong to decide she was no longer entitled to them just because she was admitted to permanent care.