A woman who tended to the needs of her seriously ill brother giving him round the clock assistance was deprived of her social security benefit when it was discovered that she held immovable assets which exceeded the statutory threshold of €14,000.

On April 10, 2015 the woman’s entitlement to a social assistance carer allowance was stopped and she was asked to refund the sum of €13,147.80 forked out by the department between 2012 and 2015.

This decision was sparked off by the discovery that in March 2012 that she had transferred to her sister, by title of donation, her one-half undivided share of two garages.

The declared value of the portion of property was €29,200. This meant that the beneficiary of the state allowance had owned property exceeding €14,000 in value, which rendered her ineligible for the benefit.

Having appealed this decision before the Social Security umpire without success, the woman took her grievance before the civil courts.

She argued that in the first place, the donation had been intended to settle a debt owed to her sister who, back in 1994, had lent her Lm20,000 to purchase a car.

Moreover, the appellant argued that she was not the real owner of the transferred property, stepping into the title merely as a figurehead in place of her father who had a gambling problem.

However, the Court of Appeal, presided over by Mr Justice Anthony Ellul,  observed that if this were so, she should not have put her signature to the transfer of the property.

Besides, nowhere in the deed had it been mentioned that the donation was being effected in full and final settlement of the loan between the two sisters.

The court, therefore, rejected the appeal declaring that the assessment of evidence by the umpire had been reasonable. This effectively meant that the woman was not entitled to the social security allowance and was to make good to the department the sum unduly paid.