Vol. 441 No. 5
180 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health if he will make a statement on the situation whereby a person in receipt of disabled person's maintenance allowance has been told that she will have to transfer to lone parent's allowance following the birth of her child and as a result will lose secondary benefits that is free travel and free electricity allowance.
Disabled person's maintenance allowance (DPMA) is a weekly allowance paid by health boards to persons over 16 years of age and is subject to both a medical and means test.
Following the birth of a child, a disabled person's maintenance allowance recipient would still be entitled to disabled person's maintenance allowance provided that she is still qualified on medical and means grounds. If the Deputy has details of any particular case, I will have officials of my Department investigate it and I will communicate the result directly to him.
