Case Studies » Domiciliary Care Allowance » Domiciliary Care Allowance - Case from 2017 Annual Report (ref: 2017/06)

Background: The appellant had applied for Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) for her son, aged 7, who had a diagnosis of severe autism. The appeal in this instance initially appeared to be the backdating of a DCA application made in February 2016. However on review of the file it was noted that the appellant had originally applied for DCA in 2014 and was disallowed in February 2015. There was a letter on the file dated August 2015 addressed to the DCA section of the Department requesting that the letter be accepted as a late appeal. There was no evidence as to whether this letter had ever been forwarded to the Social Welfare Appeals Office for consideration as a late appeal. Having reviewed all the evidence the Appeals Officer treated the case as an appeal of the February 2015 decision to refuse DCA.

Oral hearing: The appellant and her former husband attended the hearing. The appellant described significant turmoil in her life at the time she was refused DCA in February 2015, including bereavement, illness and marital and home difficulties. She was out of work on sick leave for stress and her focus was on having the HSE assessments completed on her son so that he could avail of the necessary supports and services. She was unable to return to work full-time because of her son’s care needs and worked part-time hours from home, which had since finished. Her son had a full-time SNA in mainstream school but still could not cope and from January 2015 he started in a specialist ASD Unit. The appellant confirmed that her child’s condition had not changed since her application in 2014 and that the results of the medical assessment submitted at that time had not changed. Given the available reports and evidence on file including the Department’s awarding of DCA in 2016, the Appeals Officer did not consider it necessary to explore any further the issue of the appellant’s son being a ‘qualified child’ for the purposes of DCA.

Consideration: The Appeals Officer dealt with the appeal as a late appeal of the initial decision of February 2015, based on the personal circumstances outlined by the appellant at the oral hearing. She concluded that the evidence presented with the 2014 application was very similar to the evidence presented with the 2016 application which was allowed by the Department. She concluded that it had been established that the appellant’s son met the definition of ‘qualified child’ for Domiciliary Care Allowance with effect from November 2014, when she first applied.

Outcome: Appeal allowed.