Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 January 2024
936. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Social Protection in relation to the estimated additional cost of implementing the Green Paper on Disability Reform that was indicated as €130 million by a person (details supplied) on 25 October 2023 at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands, if she will give a detailed breakdown of what this estimated additional spend will consist of. [1005/24]
View answerThe Green Paper on Disability Reform addresses my department’s 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 Green Paper’s main proposal is to introduce a new long-term, three-tiered disability payment with associated employment supports. This new payment would merge the long-term disability payments of Disability Allowance, Blind Pension, and Invalidity Pension into a single payment.
Under tier 1, people who cannot supplement their income with work would receive a higher payment rate set at the State Pension Contributory rate. People with the greatest capacity to work would be assigned to tier 3. They would remain on the current Disability Allowance rate and would be offered employment supports appropriate to their needs. People with a more limited capacity to work would be placed into tier 2 and their payment would be half-way between the other two tiers.
The estimated costs of this proposed scheme are based on the additional weekly payments that people in tiers 1 and 2 would receive and are not related to the cost of administering the scheme. To estimate the distribution of people across the proposed tiers, my department’s medical assessors carried out an analysis of 1,000 applications which were successful in being awarded Disability Allowance and notionally assigned them into tier 1, 2 or 3 based on the bio-psycho-social model of assessment. The proportion of those 1,000 people assigned to each tier was extrapolated to the entire population of people on the three disability payments. The additional costs of the proposed three-tiered payment were estimated as the proportion of people who would be assigned to tier 1 and tier 2 multiplied by the additional payment they would receive per week.
Based on 2024 rates, these measures would cost an additional €153 million each year. These new measures would cost an additional €117.48 million for those previously on Disability Allowance, €34.48 million for those on Invalidity Pension and an additional €0.75 million for those on Blind Pension.
Note, these estimations only account for the current number of people in receipt of disability payments and do not propose to estimate the number of new entrants onto the schemes.
Nobody will lose their payment or have their payment reduced based on the Green Paper proposals. Those assigned to tier 3 will retain their current payment rate. The objective is to increase people’s payments and provide more employment supports for those who can and want to work.
The Green Paper is designed for public consultation and no final decisions have been made. It offers one possible approach on how to target limited resources – its proposals are intended to invite discussion, debate, and suggestions.
I encourage all those with an interest to express their views in our public consultation by making a submission in writing or by video. It is essential that we hear from as many disabled people and representatives as possible. I have extended the consultation period until 15 March 2024 to ensure everyone has adequate time to make a submission.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
