Judge seeks review over denial of allowance to mother of autistic son

A High Court Judge has demanded the Department of Social Protection review its decision to deny a woman a domiciliary care allowance for her autistic son after finding there was “an abdication of statutory duty” by the deciding officer in the case.

Mr Justice Max Barrett heard that the deciding officer in the case had followed the advice of medical assessors in the provision of allowance to applicants in all 3,806 cases in which she had made a decision.

Mr Justice Barrett said such was the “deference” shown to the views of medical assessors by the original deciding officer in the case that the medical assessor’s opinion — following a desk-top review — was “in fact determinative of that application”.