Vol. 468 No. 4
205 Mr. J. Walsh asked the Minister for Health the total number of persons in receipt of a disabled person's maintenance allowance; the number in receipt of this allowance who are married, single and the number of dependants; the numbers being transferred from each health board region to the Department of Social Welfare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15693/96]
Limerick East): There were 32,699 people in receipt of disabled person's maintenance allowance on 31 December 1995. A breakdown of the number of married and single recipients is not available. However, the total number of adult dependants was 2,977 and the total number of child dependants was 5,561.
As the Deputy is aware the DMPA scheme is in the process of being transferred to the Department of Social Welfare. The Department of Social Welfare took over responsibility for the funding of the scheme on 1 August 1995 and responsibility for the administration of the scheme will transfer from the health boards to the Department of Social Welfare on 2 October 1996. The allowance will be known as disability allowance following this transfer and all current recipients of disabled person's maintenance allowance will automatically be transferred to the new disability allowance. Based on the 1995 statistics the number of disabled person's maintenance allowance recipients in each health board region who will transfer to disability allowance is set out in the table under:
|
Health Board |
No. of Recipients At 31/12/95 |
|
£ |
|
|
Eastern |
9,053 |
|
Midland |
1,858 |
|
Mid-West |
3,366 |
|
North-East |
2,198 |
|
North-West |
2,430 |
|
South-East |
3,918 |
|
Southern |
5,531 |
|
Western |
4,345 |
|
Total All Health Boards |
32,699 |
