Permanent Health Insurance/Income Protection Claims

A recent case involved catching an income protection benefit claimant who said he was wholly incapacitated from any kind of work but was found to be spending his day painting the town ‘magnolia’.

The 53-year old Dublin-based man had been on long term sickness from work since 1987 owing to an alleged serious back injury, and had been claiming income protection benefit since 1992. He had always defended his inability to return to his pre-accident employment as a driver due. He also claimed to be unable to work in any other capacity. Surveillance was requested due to a claims visitor noting an inconsistency between his level of benefit and the level of money being spent on his home.

Observations revealed he left home early in the mornings dressed casually. Enquiries with neighbours revealed this man was a worker and was gone from 7.30 am until 4.00 p.m. each day.

Further surveillance found him to be at home for a whole week (poss. on holidays) and during this time video footage was obtained of him as he painted the front of his 2 storey house, climbing up and down ladders etc with ease and no apparent disability. The claims handler, upon reviewing the video evidence, decided to instruct Ryan Ireland again and place claimant under further surveillance.

This time he was followed from his home address to a house some miles away that was undergoing renovations. There were several workers there and video footage was obtained of the claimant as he changed from his casual clothes into paint splattered overalls. He then removed brushes and dust sheets from his boot and entered the aforementioned property.

He was found to be painting the property both inside and out whilst the other tradesmen finished up their tasks. He was engaged in a pretext conversation, during which time he confirmed his identity and admitted he was in full time employment, even providing our Operative with his boss’s telephone number.