Social Welfare Appeal G0051

The Appellant was in receipt of Illness Benefit from October 2007 until December 2010. Her on-going entitlement to Illness Benefit was examined on foot of an application by her for Invalidity Pension. Following a medical examination by a Departmental Medical Assessor the Deciding Officer (DO) deemed that the Appellant was fit for work. Her Illness benefit was subsequently withdrawn with effect from the 1^st of December 2010.  This decision was appealed. The appellant was assisted by Roscommon CIC.

Before proceeding to Appeal, the Appellant sought a review of DO’s decision. In the course of this review a second opinion from a different Department Medical Assessor was sought. Based on the opinion of this Medical Assessor, that the Appellant was capable of work (if her difficulty was taken into account), the original disallowance was upheld on the 5^th of July 2011. The appeal was disallowed by way of summary decision on 12^th September 2011. Further representations were made including a request for an oral hearing of her case. A letter was issued to the Appellant stating that the original decision should stand. (This appeal was eventually allowed upon review by the Chief Appeals Officer under Section 318 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 [as amended]. Please see Casebase report G0052 for an overview of that decision.)