9,412 people claiming benefit found fit to work

THE number of people claiming disability allowance and illness benefit but later deemed fit to work by medical assessors increased last year.

Figures from the Department of Social and Family Affairs show 9,412 people claiming either of the social welfare payments were found to be capable of being in a job, although the department stressed the claimants were not all stripped of the payments.

The figures show that of the 8,051 disability allowance claimants examined by medical assessors, 3,551 were deemed capable of work — an increase of 1% on the figures for 2007.

There was also an increase in the percentage of illness benefit recipients examined and then found to be capable of employment — 5,861 out of a total number of 26,081 people examined.

News of the increase in the numbers comes as the Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin declared her intention to bring in more social welfare savings this year.

However, her department said because it was impossible to track individual cases, it was unable to say how many claimants found to be capable of work had their payments withdrawn.

A spokesperson for the department said: “The opinion of the medical assessor is given to a deciding officer who makes the decision to allow or disallow a claim as appropriate.

“Where a deciding officer decides a person is not qualified for payment, the applicant may appeal the decision to the independent social welfare appeals office.”

The independent appeals body is in the process of compiling this information, which will be published later this year.

However, figures released by the department earlier this week show last year a total of €72.7m was saved by the department in the illness sector following 170,329 payment reviews.

Amid growing calls for tougher checks on GPs, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee in 2007 said it was concerned some GPs may have been issuing sick certificates to people who were consistently found to be fit to work, but the department said that last year there were no cases of investigation of a GP’s continued certification of an individual.