Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 3 Jun 1998

Vol. 491 No. 6

Written Answers. - Rights of People with Disabilities.

Donal Carey

Question:

222 Mr. D. Carey asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of measures which his Department has enacted referring to people with disabilities; the date of their passing; the benefits accruing to them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12821/98]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

The Government is committed to ensuring that the needs and aspirations of people with disabilities, their families, carers and advocates are comprehensively addressed. In this context, the Government is ensuring that disability is placed on the agenda of every Department and public body. The budget allocation for my Department, for example, provides for the introduction of a range of measures, costing some £10 million in 1998 and £17.5 million in a full year, for people with disabilities and carers which will further enhance their position and will make significant progress in implementing the commitments in the Action Programme for the Millennium in this area.

From this week, people with disabilities aged 66 and over will receive an increase of £5 a week in their personal payments, while those aged under 66 will receive an increase of £3. These increases represent real increases of between 2.3 per cent and 5.3 per cent. As a result of these increases, payments to some 91,000 people with disabilities will be brought above the rates recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare, ranging between 101 per cent and 118 per cent.

The Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities has recommended that incentives to take up employment and educational opportunities should be available to people on disability payments. My Department has made progress in this regard in recent years. For example, the back-to-work allowance scheme, under which unemployed people can take up employment and continue to retain a portion of their social welfare payment and the related secondary benefits was extended to people with disabilities in 1997. This measure complements the existing employment supports which are available through the NRB and which are of particular importance to people with disabilities in gaining access in the open labour market.

However, it is accepted that many people with disabilities are not in a position to engage in such employment. Accordingly, additional measures are required to facilitate these people so that they can engage in other forms of employment and training, such as sheltered or rehabilitative employment. This year's budget provides for a significant increase, from £36.30 to £50 per week, in the amount of earnings from rehabilitative employment which can be disregarded for means test purposes in the case of the disability allowance and blind person's pension schemes. This measure is coming into force from this week.

The back to education allowance (formerly second and third level allowance) is also being extended to people in receipt of disability allowance and blind person's pension from September, 1998. Under the back to education allowance, a participant who is receiving a reduced rate of payment will have their payment topped up to the maximum rate. In addition, participants receive a cost of education allowance of £150 towards the cost of books and related expenses.

Arising from savings in my Department's Vote, the Government was able to provide a substantial investment of cash to assist people with disabilities towards the end of last year. A total of £4.825 million extra was made available to assist community and voluntary organisations working with people with disabilities and older people to cover a range of equipment necessary to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities, including accessible buses, motorised wheelchairs, training equipment, information systems, deafness aids, computers and special beds and hoists. A further £50,000 was made available to the Irish Council for People with Disabilities for computer equipment for their 30 county networks.

A range of other measures provided for in this year's budget and which will improve the position of people with disabilities are described briefly as follows. From April 1998, people transferring from invalidity pension, disability allowance and blind person's pension to another social welfare pension, e.g. widow/er's (contributory) pension can retain entitlement to the "free" schemes; the companion travel pass is being extended to all pensioners aged 75 and over who are unfit to travel alone from September 1998; free travel is being extended to all recipients of carer's allowance from September 1998; from April 1998, foreign disability pensions, up to the level of the old age (contributory) pension, are disregarded for means test purposes under the carer's allowance scheme; from April 1998, the full-time care and attention condition for carer's allowance purposes has been relaxed to allow the carer to attend education or training courses or participate in voluntary or community activities for around ten hours a week; and from April 1998, the carer's allowance continues to be paid from 6 weeks after the death of a spouse being cared for, where that spouse was not getting a social welfare payment.