Responsibility for the disabled person's maintenance allowance, DPMA, scheme was transferred from the Department of Health and Children and the health boards to the Department of Social and Family Affairs in October 1996. On the transfer of the scheme the existing qualifying conditions were retained and the scheme was renamed "disability allowance". One of the qualifying conditions applying to the former DPMA scheme was that the payment could not be made to people who were in residential care where the cost of the person's maintenance was met in whole or in part by a health board.
Effectively, persons who would otherwise have qualified for disability allowance continued to have their maintenance costs and, in certain cases, an element of spending money met separately rather than through a disability allowance payment. Since the take-over of the scheme by my Department, the restrictions on payment to persons in residential care have been progressively changed. From August 1999 existing disability allowance recipients who are living at home can retain their entitlement where they subsequently go into hospital or residential care. A review of illness and disability payment schemes completed by the Department in September 2003 recommended the removal of the residential care disqualification for disability allowance purposes. The working group which oversaw the review recognised that the removal would have a range of implications, and that, in the absence of reliable data on the numbers involved and the actual funding arrangements currently in place, it was not possible to fully assess the likely impact or cost of such a move.
Budget 2003 provided for the take-over by my Department of the discretionary "pocket money" allowances paid to people with disabilities in residential care who are not entitled to disability allowance and for the standardisation of the level of these allowances. The Department undertook an information gathering process with the health boards with a view to arranging for the transfer of responsibility for the payment of these allowances and of the funds involved.
In budget 2005, I announced, as an interim measure, a payment of €35 per week will be payable to the persons with disabilities who are affected by the current restriction with effect from June 2005. It was noted that there were a number of complex practical and administrative issues remain to be resolved with the Department of Health and Children and the health boards, such as the determination, as appropriate, of what proportion of the allowance could be retained by the institution as a contribution towards the resident's care and maintenance and the need to avoid any duplication of funding. It is my intention to progress the outstanding issues as a priority, so that all persons with disabilities can become entitled, as soon as possible, to the full rate of disability allowance irrespective of their residential status.