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Living Alone Allowance Case 4

Question At Issue:

Whether payment of a living alone allowance to a pensioner could be back-dated for a number of years.

Background:

The appellant applied for a living alone allowance as an addition to his social welfare pension and sought to have it back-dated for four years to the date his wife died. The claim was awarded from the date of claim and retrospective payment for the four year period was refused.

Oral Hearing:

The appellant was in bad health and was confined to a nursing home at the time of the appeal hearing. In the circumstances, the Appeals Officer allowed the appellant’s daughter to represent him and the appeal proceeded on that basis.

The appellant’s daughter explained that her mother had always handled household and financial matters for her father and, following her death, he had suffered a stroke which required hospitalisation and subsequent care by family members including herself over a number of months. That period was a particularly traumatic time for the family which gave rise to much confusion and uncertainty on her father’s part. He returned after a period of convalescence to live on his own in the family home. She stated that he was a proud and independent man who was proving difficult to deal with in the light of his failing health and his loss of independence. It was only when he became ill recently that a family member got sight of his pension book and realised that he was not getting the living alone allowance. The only explanation she could think of was that he was unaware of the allowance and would almost certainly have applied for it if he had been aware. She offered the explanation that the difficulties encountered in the aftermath of her mother’s death deflected attention away from ensuring that her father was getting all his due entitlements.

Consideration of the Appeals Officer:

The Appeals Officer’s consideration focused on the facts of the case as adduced from the file papers and the daughter’s evidence and also on the relevant legislation governing the back-dating of claims. Claims may be back-dated beyond six months if it can be shown that the delay in claiming the payment was due to incorrect information having been given by the Department of Social and Family Affairs or incapacity to make a claim on the part of the claimant or force majeure or financial hardship. He referred to a letter which the appellant sent to the Department some months after his wife’s death seeking information as to his entitlements, particularly with regard to the six week’s after death payment and the bereavement grant. While there was no specific mention of the living alone allowance in that letter, the Appeals Officer was of the view that the appellant’s request for information as to his entitlements was made in the context of the change in his circumstances consequent upon the death of his wife.

Accordingly, while there was no evidence that the reply which issued to the appellant contained incorrect or misleading information, the fact that it did not advert to the living alone allowance could have led him to believe that he was in receipt of all his entitlements. The Department already had relevant household information for the appellant on file. In the circumstances, the Appeals Officer was of the view that the failure to issue a comprehensive reply to the appellant covering all his entitlements, including the living alone allowance, could be construed as amounting to misleading information by omission. The Appeals Officer noted that the ill health which the appellant suffered after his wife’s death resulted in hospitalisation and subsequent care for a number of months by family members before the appellant was able to return to the family home to live on his own. He allowed the back-dating of the living alone allowance to the date the appellant commenced living on his own.

Outcome:

Appeal allowed.

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