Alan Shatter
Question:201 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will increase the disability allowance to £100 per week as proposed by the National Representative Council. [14418/00]
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
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, provided, inter alia, for a £4 a week increase in social welfare payments in general, including disability allowance.
In addition, special increases in the rates of qualified adult allowances have been 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 have been increased by £7.80 a week – 6.7%.
As part of the process of aligning tax and social welfare changes by 2001, these increases have been paid four weeks earlier this year, from the beginning of May.
This means that some 51,200 recipients of disability allowance received the increased rates of payment four weeks earlier than in previous years.
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 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 to be administered by the Department of Health and Children and which would be paid regardless of the person's employment status.
As provided for under the programme for prosperity and fairness, a working group is being established to examine the feasibility of introducing a cost of disability payment. This working group, which is being chaired by the Department of Health and Children and comprises representatives of the Department of Finance and the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, will consult with the social partners.
The outcome of the work of this group will be important in informing future policy in this area.