Sir, – Last week I received a brown envelope with a harp. Its contents informed me that my carer’s allowance was being terminated from this week. This is my sole income. It stated the medical assessor’s determination that my son did not require full-time care based on the medical evidence. That medical evidence consisted of the form completed by my doctor on the occasion of a review last year. Nothing else was requested at that time. Nothing has changed regarding the level of 24-hour care I provide for my son.
It would be my dearest wish that he did not require this care. How dare an anonymous assessor who has never met me or my son tell me what level of care he requires. A subsequent letter arrived yesterday terminating the household package to which recipients of the carer’s allowance are entitled. To add insult to injury an envelope was enclosed in which I am instructed to return my travel pass.
It is my hunch that this culling of carers is timed to further prevent the payment of the annual respite grant, made in June, which I will not now receive either.
This fiscal operation by the Department of Social Protection will impress our nation’s lenders. It does shamefully little to protect the vulnerable in our society whose welfare the ministry has been entrusted and charged with.
I must now endure an appeal process and visit the Welfare Officer for which I have precious little energy. – Yours, etc,