Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that the issues to which the Deputy refers occurred because the property was registered for Local Property Tax (LPT) using the PPS number of the deceased spouse of the person in question. The registration, which was completed by a family member through the LPT online system resulted in all of the various notifications and payment reminders being issued in the name of the deceased person.

Revenue has also confirmed to me that it has already been in contact with a son of the person in question on foot of the various outstanding issues and explained that she could not be linked to the property in her own right as her PPS number is in an 'older style' format that is incompatible with current IT systems.

For the Deputy's information these 'old style' PPS numbers were generally assigned to a female spouse on marriage and were configured by adding the letter 'W' to the husband's PPS number.

Revenue's understanding was that the person in question, or her 'designated DSP agent' (DSP can only deal with the designated person on file), would contact the 'Client Identity Section of the Department of Social Protection (DSP)' to request a new PPS number, which the LPT team could then 'link' to the property in question. However it seems that neither the person nor the 'designated DSP agent' have yet made this request and as a consequence the LPT team can not make the necessary amendments.

Because of the circumstances of the case, a member of the LPT team has made a further number of unsuccessful attempts to contact the person's son by telephone to clarify the issues. Given that telephone contact has not been possible, the LPT team will write directly to the person advising on the procedures that must be followed when acquiring a 'new style' PPS number from DSP. As soon as the person receives the new PPS number from DSP then she or her representatives should make immediate contact with the LPT team who will create the correct linkage to the property and will set up her preferred payment methods.