Accepting an Offer
The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme enables former residents of the 44 Mother and Baby or County institutions to receive a payment due to their time spent in the homes. Once you have made an application to the Payment Scheme the Case Management Team, who handle all applications to the scheme, have to issue a ‘Notice of Determination’.
What is a Notice of Determination?
A Notice of Determination is a decision letter that tells you which, if any, of the benefits from the Payment Scheme that you are entitled to receive. The listed benefits are;
The first four pages of the Notice outline the decision. It will inform you of the institution(s) that the Case Management Team have traced your records for, the length of time that these records show that you spent in an institution.
They will also state whether you are entitled to a General Payment, a Work-Related Payment, a Health Support Payment or a combination of these three payments.
The General & Work-Related Payment will inform you of the specific amounts that you can receive for these benefits. The Heath Support Payment will not list the amount of money that you are entitled to receive, instead it will simply say ‘Eligible’ or ‘Not Eligible’.
Where the Health Support Payment* states that you are ‘Eligible’ you should add a further €3,000 onto the amount that you are being offered.
*Health Support Payments are only available for people who were in one of the 44 Institutions for more than 180 days and live outside the Republic of Ireland.
A Notice of Determination can also inform you that you are not eligible for the Payment Scheme on the grounds that the Case Management Team could not establish that you were resident in the scheduled institution at the relevant time. A further reason for not being eligible are that you were not in an institution for more than 180 days as a child.
If this is the case you can request a review of your case. You need to request a review within 60 days of receipt of the Notice of Determination. Details of how to request a review are on the Notice.
Receipt of Notice of Determination
If you have completed a paper application, you will receive you Notice of Determination via a registered delivery though the post.
If you have completed an online application, you will receive an email from ‘noreply@relatecare.com’ informing you that you should log onto your online portal. Once in your account you will see need to open the Notice of Determination. Along with the Notice of Determination there will be an acceptance form, that you will need to sign, the legal waive and a form to enter your bank details
What is a Legal Waiver?
The Legal Waiver is a form that states that you will not to take any legal proceedings or if applicable, to stop any proceedings already commenced against a public body, that relate to the circumstances to which the application to the Payment Scheme concerns. For more information about getting advice on the legal waiver, see our blog post here Legal costs and the Payment Scheme - Mother and Baby Homes (frea.org.uk)
Bank Account Details
You will need to submit your bank details in order to accept the payment. You will have already submitted these when you made the application to the Payment Scheme, however you will need to complete the form that asks for these details and submit this. You will need to submit both your International Banking Number (IBAN) and your BIC/Swift code if you are accepting this offer from outside the Republic of Ireland. These can usually be found on bank statements, however if you cannot find them, phone your bank who should be able to give you these details.
Accepting an offer – paper application
If you wish to accept the offer you will need to be able to print off the forms to complete these and post it to;
PO Box 13668, Waterford, Ireland
Accepting an offer – online application
If you wish to accept the offer you will need to be able to print off the forms to complete these and upload to your portal. Once uploaded you will need to click the submit button on the portal to complete the acceptance.
Applicants have a maximum of 6 months from the issue of the Notice of Determination to decide whether to accept or decline the offer from the Payment Scheme.
If you were a mother or child that spent time in a Mother and Baby or County Home and want further information on the Irish Government Mother and Baby and County Home Action plan, please contact Renewing Roots at renewingroots@frea.org.uk or 07432 138682 or see our website which also contains a list of County Homes. All our advice is free and confidential.
All enquiries are free of charge and will be treated confidentially.