New grants of up to €1,000 for medical contact lenses

Grants of up to €1,000 towards the cost of medically required contact lenses are to be made available every two years for employees and the self-employed.

The new measures will be announced on Friday by Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys.

Previously, this support was provided every four years to workers who required contact lenses for medical reasons.

These changes, under the Department’s Treatment Benefit Scheme, reduce that period by half.

Under the scheme, grants of up to €1,000 towards the cost of a pair of medical contact lenses will be provided every two years, or €500 for each contact lens.

The changes take effect immediately for people who qualify under the Department’s Treatment Benefit Scheme.

The initiative is the third such improvement to the scheme introduced by the Minister this year.

In May, Minister Humphreys announced a new €500 grant towards the cost of a hairpiece, wig or hair replacement. The measure is designed to support people who suffer from cancer or certain forms of alopecia.

The Minister also announced measures that will mean people aged 25-28 will now only need to work for 9 months to avail of dental, optical and aural treatments.

The scheme is available to employees, self-employed and retired people with the required PRSI contributions and to their adult dependants.

The Treatment Benefit scheme provides for full or partial funding for specified dental, optical, aural treatments, medical appliances (hearing aids and medical contact lenses) and a grant towards the cost of a hairpiece, wig or hair replacement. It is the Department’s largest individual scheme in terms of claims with over 1.4 million made in 2021.

Expenditure on the scheme was over €109 million in 2021, with an estimated additional €7 million being reimbursed to the HSE in respect of people who were dual qualified for treatment (under both Treatment Benefit and the HSE medical card scheme).

%d bloggers like this: