Seán Haughey
Question:73. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Minister for Social Protection the key aspects of the proposed three-tiered personal support payment for people with disabilities. [46391/23]
View answerTuesday, 24 October 2023
Questions (73, 99, 107, 116)
Cathal Crowe
Question:99. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will confirm that under the proposals in the Green Paper on Reform of Disability Payments, no person who is currently in receipt of long-term disability payments will be moved off a disability payment. [46399/23]
View answer
Barry Cowen
Question:107. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Social Protection the details of proposals to address inconsistencies in eligibility for disability payments. [46393/23]
View answerSeán Haughey
Question:116. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Minister for Social Protection the details of the proposed introduction of new in-work supports for people with disabilities. [46392/23]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 73, 99, 107 and 116 together.
The Green Paper is my Department's response to our commitment under the Roadmap for Social Inclusion to develop and consult on proposals to restructure long-term disability payments and to simplify the system.
The main proposal of the Green Paper is a three-tiered Personal Support Payment. This would replace Invalidity Pension, Disability Allowance and Blind Pension with a contributory and non-contributory stream.
I want to emphasise that nobody will have their payment reduced. We want to increase people’s payments and to provide more employment supports for those who can and want to work.
For people who cannot supplement their income with work, they will receive a higher payment rate, set at the State Pension Contributory rate. People with the greatest capacity to work will remain on the current Disability Allowance rate and will be offered employment supports appropriate to their needs. People with a more limited capacity to work will be placed in the middle tier and their payment will be half-way between the other two levels. They will also be offered appropriate employment and training supports. No one will have their payment reduced. Many will receive a significant increase in their payment of €45 per week.
Reforms also aim to address the inconsistencies and anomalies in the current system, such as the qualifying age, medical criteria and in-work supports. The qualifying age for adult disability payments would be standardised to 18. In parallel with this, the payment of Domiciliary Care Allowance would be extended to age 18 with transitional arrangements in place for the initial years.
The eligibility criteria for access onto the new Personal Support Payment would also be standardised.
And finally, the Paper proposes the introduction of a standardised in-work income support, the Working Age Payment. This support will be based the Working Family Payment which is a well established in-work support for low-earning families. It pays a fixed percentage of the difference between threshold earnings level and actual earnings.
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 invite discussion, debate and suggestions.
We are running a number of public consultation events over the next couple of months in Dublin, Athlone and Cork to gather the views of individuals and organisations. Individuals and organisations are welcome to make submissions in writing or videos in Irish Sign Language providing feedback on the proposals in the Green Paper and suggesting alternative proposals, until 15 December.