A most critical point and up and down this country suicide is increasing daily. People most vulnerable are being targeted while rich people and bankers get billions without blinking an eye. There are thousands of people in this country discarded by the state and it is totally unacceptable and cruel to torture people like this and leave them in Limbo. Yes by all means weed out the fraudsters but why are they declining serious cases backed up by GP reports and Consultant reports. These doctors know the patient for years and have the profession training and skill to decide who is genuine or not. Why can an old retired GP (jobbed by the department) have the power to simply stroke out a genuine case with a medical history? It is a farce and a disgrace to this government to allow this to continue. I worked all my life and now have a lifelong illness and am one of those left in Limbo and Yes I paid my taxes and social insurance but this means nothing to this government. For anyone reading this thinking ah well thank god its not me let me say I used to think like that until I was struck down with a serious illness and now I have to crawl to a welfare service who treats me and others with contempt regardless of whether I worked. I know people who never worked. Career welfare spongers and they have everything and more given to them. I got nothing for nothing in my life. They refused me like a dog on the street and made no distinction between the fact that I worked for 35 years of my life.

Tell ur mam. To ring up on a weekly basis and ask any u date on her application.

Thanks for that Tim – the dangers of spell check! Each reference has been corrected now.

Tim. The answer to your question is yes they are, but you’ll never get one of them to admit it.

My daughter has waited almost a year to be granted Disability Allowance. We have now been told she has got it but it now has to go through another section for testing of means…. By the time that gets done, it will have been 12 months and it will go into review so we start the whole process again!!!! No common sense, nearly impossible to get any information from them, EVERYTHING takes months. It’s soul destroying

Do we ignore the fact that its one of the most fraudulently claimed benefits because its not PC to question somebody who claims a disability payment.

Guy I lived next door to a few years ago suffered a work injury on his back and was on a disability allowance for ten years. Last time I saw him he was up a ladder with concrete blocks building his own home extension. Nothing wrong with the chancer apart from being lazy !

Neil you’re right it’s definately not PC. And certainly don’t bring up that there are people hoping their relatives get certified so that they can then claim Carer’s allowance.

Again the same one example of fraud. Thousands of genuine cases are being refused. cases verified by doctors and consultants.

Blame Fianna Fail for creating that.

@Geraldine. I think many/most comments are at the cheats. But your basic reaction is telling. Morons? Really?? I mean Really?? Are they?

The leeches have got everything. Genuine people who worked and are now ill cannot get a benefit and are refused like me after working 35 years. Now I am left in Limbo waiting for an appeal. If you work in this country you are treated like a dog but if you never did a days work you get everything. Thats how I see it. Those around me with disability are not genuine and spend the day sitting at their doors drinking tea. Me the fool worked and the sneer at me and it is me now turned down for a benefit I paid into by PRSI and tax. Its just wrong. Weed out the false claims by all means put please do not punish people like me who have a genuine illness with documents to back it up from GP and Consultant.

And if everyone paid their tax we would have more to spend.

Maybe it has something to do with the faked moon landings and some other conspiracies….

Or maybe they just want to weed out the liars.

And if the government didn’t give away our taxes to unsecured bondholders who are making a killing having bought at huge markdowns in the secondary markets they wouldn’t have to come up with regressive measures like the household charge. Well done to everyone who refused to give in to intimidation and pay that charge.

Exactly Mike. Unfortunately this backlog was an inevitable result of trying to weed out the chancers and jokers from the people we should be REALLY supporting.

Wow Jeanette that’s ridiculous!!! My mother is also a carer my bro is Autistic and my sister has Retts syndrome but she is in Residential(?) care she needs 24/7 care that we can not provide!!! My mother is terrified of the budget she is walking on egg shells at the thought of what they are going to cut!! Seems the government only attack the people who really need the help!!

Annoyingly, That is very true. If the doctors responsible for giving out these unworthy “sick-notes” were disciplined, it would stop pretty sharpish!

Oliver you right.. I quality for disability but I have never claimed it as I CAN work. So I do. It disgust me the people claiming disability just because they can even thought they don’t need to.

I’m glad it has been noticed that the medical profession are complicit in this fraud. I know someone who’s been given ‘carer’s’ allowance for several years now in respect of her mother who drives her own car, takes holidays with friends, plays golf. The daughter has been able to sit at home in her own house unhindered by having to pretend to look for work, and does significantly better monitarily than if she were on job seekers. She also gets the Homecare package for her own house (I know this is no longer available for new applicants). When granted Carer’s allowance her father was very much alive and well and living with the mother. We have very limited resources to allocate between competing ends so what we don’t need is the medical profession writing reports which allow our resources to be abused and not go to the most needy.

I think you two have your welfare payments muddled up..
Disability BENEFIT is the one you get your doctor to sign a cert and you send it off to the social. THAT’S the one that gets defrauded and there’s no way to fix that because its automatically paid.

Disability ALLOWANCE, which is what the article is about, is intended for people with serious physical or mental disabilities, or serious psychiatric disorders. People who will most likely never be able to work full time.

There’s a bit of a difference between the two..

The problem for docs is that if they confront their patients, they leave and go to the next GP who will certify them. No punishment, and indeed financial reward for the GP who does sign them up.
The treating physician cannot give an independent assessment – there is an overwhelming conflict of interest.
I told Enda Kenny he could save up to €1 Billion per annum by dealing with this fraud, but he wasn’t interested. I have heard that the social welfare department has been politically ordered not to cut payments for fear of losing votes.

Oliver first of all A GP and a Consultant will not lie to the department for you. They will not certify Phantom illnesses so how do you explain people being refused with a history of serious illness with medical evidence? They are not fit for work as stated by health professionals who know the patient, yet they are declined. How do you explain that?

Really? Because my mother had spinal surgery in 2000, they cut her sciatic nerve root in two different places and she’s in excruciating pain and can’t walk without a stick..
She was refused.