Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 October 2023
387. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which it is possible to seamlessly transfer suitable applicants from domiciliary care allowance to disability allowance payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46742/23]
View answerDomiciliary Care Allowance is a monthly allowance payable to a parent/guardian in respect of a child aged under 16, who has a severe disability and requires continual or continuous care and attention in the home, that is substantially over and above the level of care and attention normally required by a child of the same age and the child must be likely to require this level of care for at least 12 months.
Eligibility for Domiciliary Care Allowance is not based entirely on the disability or diagnosis, but rather on the impact of the disability in terms of the level of care and attention required by the child, as provided for in the governing legislation.
Domiciliary Care Allowance ceases to be payable when a child turns 16. An application for Disability Allowance may be made at 16 years of age. Disability Allowance is a means tested payment for people who are aged between 16 and 66 with a specified disability that may be expected to continue for at least a year.
Each year approximately half of the children for whom Domiciliary Care Allowance was paid in respect of transferred to Disability Allowance once they reach the scheme's maximum age limit of 16 years.
As the basis for these two payments, care and disability, and the person to which the payment is made are different if is not possible to have a seamless transition between the two payments.
I am committed to restructuring long-term disability payments and to simplify the social welfare system to make it work better for people with disabilities. On 20 September, I published a Green Paper on Disability Reform and launched the associated public consultation.
The Green Paper contains a proposal to standardise the qualifying age and medical criteria for disability payments. The qualifying age for adult disability payments would be standardised to 18, as recommended by numerous reports before. In parallel with this, the payment of Domiciliary Care Allowance would be extended to age 18 with transitional arrangements in place for a few years.
The Paper’s key proposal is to introduce a new long-term disability payment that has three tiers of payment with associated employment supports. The aim of this is two-fold. Firstly it aims to encourage a higher level of employment for people with disabilities, which will improve their outcomes; and secondly to better insulate disabled people who cannot work from poverty and deprivation.
It is important to note that under this new tiered proposal nobody will lose their payment or have their payment reduced. The objective is to increase people’s payments and provide more employment supports for those who can and want to work.
I cannot emphasise enough that the proposals of the Green Paper are not final. They represent a starting point for a structured discussion on what the future of long-term disability payments could look like. They are intended to provoke discussion, debate and suggestions.
I would like to encourage all those with an interest to express their views as part of the public consultation process, which will last until 15 December 2023.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
