Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 20 Apr 2000

Vol. 518 No. 5

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

Richard Bruton

Question:

169 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he has received a submission from the national representative council of people with disabilities seeking the immediate increase in the disability allowance to £100; if he has assessed the extra cost of living for people with disability compared to able bodied persons; and his views on whether the extra costs warrant an extra payment of at least £22.50 per week. [12212/00]

Róisín Shortall

Question:

170 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of persons in receipt of disability allowance; the benefits, if any, of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness for this group; if his attention has been drawn to the campaign of the national representative council for disability allowance to be immediately raised to £100 per week so that people with disabilities will not be forced to live below the poverty line; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12213/00]

Michael Ring

Question:

172 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will increase the disability allowance to a minimum £100 per week in accordance with the additional costs associated with disability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12221/00]

Michael Creed

Question:

173 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of persons in receipt of disability allowance. [12223/00]

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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 169, 170, 172 and 173 together.

Last December's social welfare budget package, which is the biggest ever social welfare budget allocation amounting to over £428 million on a full year basis, provides, inter alia, for a £4 a week increase in social welfare payments in general, including disability allowance. With an expected annual average inflation rate of 3% for 2000, this year's increases will be ahead of expected inflation, representing a real increase of 2.3% for recipients of disability allowance.

In addition, special increases in the rates of qualified adult allowances are being provided as part of an overall strategy to increase this allowance to 70% of the main rate over the next three budgets. This means that the couple rate of disability allowance will increase by £7.80 a week – 6.7% – which represents a real increase of 3.6%.

As part of the process of aligning tax and social welfare changes by 2001, these increases are being paid four weeks earlier this year, from the beginning of May. This means that some 51,200 recipients of disability allowance will receive the increased rates of payment four weeks earlier than in previous years.

In addition to the increases in the weekly rates of social welfare payments, last December's budget also provided for a number of other improvements for people with disabilities, including the payment of full-rate disability allowance to those in full-time residential care, which will result in an increase of £40.70 a week in such cases; and a 50% increase, from £50 to £75 a week, in the amount of income from rehabilitative employment which is disregarded for disability allowance purposes. This enhanced disregard has also been extended to those in rehabilitative self-employment.

The submission made by the national representative council – NRC – which proposes increasing the disability allowance to £100 a week, raises two separate issues: the adequacy of social welfare payment rates, and the question of the additional costs associated with disability.

With regard to the adequacy of social welfare rates, including the rate of disability allowance, it should be noted that the recently ratified Programme for Prosperity and Fairness – PPF – provides that over the next three years all rates of social welfare will be increased in real terms and substantial progress will be made towards a target of £100 a week for the lower rates of payment.

The NRC has proposed that the rate of disability allowance be increased to £100 per week so as to compensate for the additional costs associated with disability. However it should be noted that, in addressing the question of these additional costs, the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities distinguished between income maintenance needs and the additional costs associated with a disability.

The commission recognised that people with disabilities incur additional costs regardless of whether they are in receipt of a social welfare payment or are in employment. It was for this reason they recommended that the additional costs associated with disability should be met through the introduction of a separate costs of disability payment, which would be paid regardless of the person's employment status.

In this regard, the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness contains a commitment that the Departments of Health and Children, Social, Community and Family Affairs and Finance will set up and participate in a working group which will consult with the social partners to examine the feasibility of introducing a costs of disability payment.

The outcome of the work of this group will be important in informing future policy in this area, and I look forward to receiving the results in due course.

Michael Ring

Question:

171 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans he has to introduce the free travel pass automatically to children with conditions such as Down's syndrome and other disabilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12220/00]

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

The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years, or over, to all carers in receipt of carer's allowance and to carers of people in receipt of constant attendance or prescribed relative's allowance. It is also available to people under age 66 who are in receipt of certain disability type welfare payments, such as disability allowance and invalidity pension.

A companion pass is available to recipients of a disability allowance who are certified as unfit to travel alone and people who are in receipt of a qualifying payment and are confined to a wheelchair. Children who are registered as blind with either the National Council for the Blind of Ireland or the National League of the Blind in Ireland are also entitled to a companion free travel pass.

Extending the free travel scheme to all children with disabilities would involve additional expenditure which could only be considered in a budgetary context.