The Health Service Executive (HSE) has agreed to pay arrears of €11,882 to a woman after the Ombudsman found it failed to implement a decision of the Social Welfare Appeals Office.
Emily O'Reilly has published a report on the incident in which she says the HSE had no proper basis for not implementing the decision. She goes on to say that the failure had a negative long term effect on the woman and her two daughters - all of whom were seeking asylum.
The HSE has apologised and has also agreed to pay an additional "time and trouble" payment of €3,000.
In her report, the Ombudsman describes how the woman complained about the rate of Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) paid to her by the HSE following a successful appeal. She believed that the decision of the Social Welfare Appeals Office was to award her the full rate of SWA (€197.80 for herself and €24.00 per week for her daughter).
However the HSE had paid her €19.10 for herself and €9.60 for her daughter. This lower amount is the rate paid to asylum seekers living in 'direct provision' accommodation. However, the woman was not living in 'direct provision' accommodation at the time.
