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The decision to suspend social welfare inspection visits to households with level 5 restrictions has been welcomed.
The Irish Examiner reported on Thursday that such visits had continued even under Level 5 restrictions in limited circumstances.
An Irish Examiner investigation previously found that numerous single-parent women have had harrowing experiences with home visits.
Based on a response to a parliamentary question from Minister Heather Humphreys to TD Gary Gannon, the Social Democrat, the department said it was limiting home inspections as much as possible.
Suspension of visits was not mentioned in the answer to the parliamentary question.
In that response, the Department of Social Protection said its inspectors and staff are considered “essential services” and are conducting their reviews in a limited capacity.
The department has now said that it initially suspended home inspections around the time the first closing restrictions were imposed.
The Department said a Business Continuity Plan for all staff was posted on the Department’s Intranet site on October 15, stating that when Level 4 or Level 5 restrictions exist, in-person engagement with customers should only be place when absolutely essential.
When the decision was made to move to Level 5, a message was sent from top management to all staff emphasizing again that some services needed to be reduced, including welfare inspection work.
“In any event, the expression ‘to the greatest extent possible’ would mean, even if level 5 did not apply, that only truly essential interviews would be conducted,” the department said, confirming a continuous level of interviews.
Gannon asked why the response to the PQ on Tuesday had not clarified the matter, but appreciated the department’s update.
Social welfare inspectors have continued to conduct home visits during level 5 restrictions, the can reveal.
Despite all the banned home visits for the general population since October, the Department of Social Protection has confirmed that its inspectors and staff are considered “essential services” and are conducting their reviews in a limited capacity, a decision that the Social Democrat TD Gary Gannon called it “callous”.
A Research previously found that numerous single-parent women have had distressing experiences with home visits.
Many have detailed that inspectors rummaged through their underwear drawers and wardrobes, sat outside their homes, and claimed to have taken photos of them when they were with their children in public. The visits are made in order to detect fraud in the system while many women say that they are made to feel “useless” and “like a beggar”.
In response to Social Democrat TD Gary Gannon, Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys confirmed that these visits have continued in limited capacity despite the increase in Covid-19 cases linked to community transmission in “uncontrolled settings” such as households. and when the majority of the population has been ordered to work from home.
“My department is considered an essential service and will continue to provide clients with access to its services, as appropriate, during the course of the current level 5 restrictions,” he said.
“As part of my department’s obligations to ensure proper provision of its service and compliance with the various conditions of the plan, the social welfare inspectors are required to carry out a series of inspections that include desk evaluations of client claims and face-to-face interviews with clients, home visits, and audits of employers’ PRSI records.
“In accordance with Level 5 restrictions, public health advice and in the interests of the health and safety of both clients and staff, the department will seek to fully comply with its obligations while limiting, to the greatest extent possible , any face-to-face meetings, customer interviews, including routine inspections, while current restrictions apply. “
“My department has no plans to pass a review for the social welfare inspections, as the existing Code of Conduct and the Client Charter are already in place to address any issues that may arise.”
Gannon says he finds it difficult to accept that these visits are essential at level 5.
“It is disappointing that even when we are in the middle of a level 5 lockdown, vulnerable groups receiving welfare are still told that they may have to allow a welfare inspector to enter their home.
“I find it difficult to accept that the department of social protection would not just suspend this practice; I doubt that someone wants to enter a stranger’s home, or that a stranger calls without warning during a pandemic and that the department is not yet willing to do so. “Simply claiming that the practice has ceased demonstrates a truly callous attitude towards the beneficiaries of social welfare.”
Welfare inspections of single parents have continued during the Covid-19 pandemic despite the finding from the state spending regulator, comptroller and auditor general asking the department to review its approach.
In October this year, their report found that welfare recipients in working family payments and single parent payments were subject to “high intensity screening” with overpayments of between € 20 and € 72 respectively. Schemes with low levels of review such as the state pension have high levels of overpayment.
When 8% of pension applicants were reviewed in 2019, one in five detected an overpayment and the average sum was € 770.
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