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SOCIAL PROTECTION MINISTER Regina Doherty today announced that over 1.25 million claims were made for dental and optical support in 2018 according to her Department’s latest figures.
Over one million claims were made by employees paying PRSI social insurance a with over 190,000 claims made by self-employed people paying their own contributions.
These figures compares with a total of 659,115 claims made in 2017.
Treatment Benefits were extended to the self-employed and their dependent spouses/partners in March 2017 and further improvements to the scheme were made and available to both employed and self-employed contributors from the end of October 2017.
Currently, there some 2.5 million PRSI contributors, comprising employees and self-employed who may have an entitlement to claim treatment benefits for both themselves and their dependent spouse or partner.
Minister Doherty said: “The extension of the treatment benefits and the expansion of the scheme together with the online application facility ‘Welfare Partners’ have made the scheme more accessible and I would hope that this trend continues in 2019.
“I am pleased to see that last year so many availed of these benefits earned through their PRSI contributions. I would remind all PRSI contributors to avail of these benefits during 2019.”
The optical scheme covers the provision of glasses, either free or subsidised if an upgraded design is chosen, or provides a contribution towards contact lenses. Repairs to glasses are also covered under the scheme.
The dental scheme includes a contribution to cleaning, either an annual scale and polish or more extensive periodontal treatment if clinically required. The cleaning requires a co-payment from the patient if the cost of the treatment charged by the dentist is in excess of the amount payable by the Department. For the simpler scale and polish treatment this additional co-payment is capped at a maximum of €15. A free annual dental examination is also available
Benefits available under the medical appliance scheme include a payment of 50% towards the cost of a hearing aid, up to a maximum payment of €500 per aid.
Sleep walking into a firmly controlled disaster!
@Colette Kearns: those newbies oblivious to whats coming!
Cash is still king folks keep using it as much as possible
A cashless society is a dark road to totalitarian control. They will know where you spend your money and how you spend your money. If your political ideology does not align with theirs they simply freeze you out of the system just like Canada did. Infactvits already happened here
@GreenFlag: not really about control. But the sane person who n
@GreenFlag: not really about control. But the same person who makes your argument will go shopping in Tesco with their club card (shoes Tesco everything you buy and how often you buy and your demographic breakdown) as well as accepting cookies on websites and allowing meta to look
At you personal info. But it’s the paying with card which is the bad thing .. clearly ..
@Ciaran: Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is coming; plans are well advanced in the US,UK, EU and elsewhere. These currencies will be programmable, i.e. where, when and on what you spend ‘your’ money will be monitored and controlled. This is not the same as voluntarily sharing meta data with some social media platform.
Research CBDCs and understand a cashless society is not good for the ordinary citizen.
@GreenFlag: why do you even have a phone then?
Hardly surprising as contactless is easier and safer for those paying, plus merchants don’t have the costs and security concerns of handling cash.
@Stephen Kearon: More like merchants have to declare all transactions.
Should this article not be marked as “Sponsored By BOI or AIB” ?…….Cash is KING.
@Eddie Feeney:
They could at least sponsor the stock image
@Sandra Anderson: and that’s a bad thing?
Cashless is the way to go. Get rid of the blackmarket and the brown envelopes.
And what do you propose in its place? One thing is for sure, the only market losing out on this is the black market
Of course. That is what the educational system, (run by mercenary merchants have told them to do), is anyone surprised? I know I am not. I’ve been warned about this sort of thing by the conspiracy theorists. Ha ha ha. How about using all those critical faculties you were told you had, when you started at university. Pity you seem to have lost them on the way out and gained a loan that you are unlikely to be ever able to pay back. You are now a criminal in one country if not another. Welcome to the new world renowned among us, by us, and don’t bother to ask for justice. You should know by now you are not going to get it on the journal. When all hope is lost. That’s when you will have a chance to chat with the most high. Ain’t that good news?
I love cash and will only use cash
Happy to use the card cept for the bank fees.
@der Fussballmeister: What bank fees are you referring to? Contactless payments are free (/included with your account servicing fees) with all retail banks in Ireland. ATM withdrawals are not.
The only reason I dont fully go cashless, and even more so, contactless, is that it is too handy. So handy in fact that people can forget and just keep tapping. Call me old fashioned, but I continue to take my weekly cash out so I can see exactly where it goes and how much I have left for the rest of the week. It has nothing to do about worrying about the New World Orders or that the banks and shops and government knowing what I spend my money on…..just me, myself, keeping control of where it goes.
I buy all my tinfoil hats with cash. Can’t beat it.
Heading for cashless
have your say