Vol. 411 No. 4
185 Mr. Spring asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the practice among some agencies providing services for people with a mental handicap whereby recipients of the disabled person's maintenance allowance are required to sign over the allowance to the agency as a condition of receiving service; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
204 Mr. Spring asked the Minister for Health the reasons some of the agencies offering services for people with a mental handicap under his overall control require all beneficiaries of such service to sign over their disabled person's maintenance allowance to the agency concerned as a condition of entry to the service; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 185 and 204 together.
I am not aware of any agency which obliges people with a mental handicap to sign over their disabled persons maintenance allowance as a condition of entry to service. In cases where people are attending training centres their DPMA or training allowance is paid to them through the agency whose services they are attending. In addition, they may also receive an attendance or training allowance. If the Deputy has details of any instances of persons being required to sign over the DPMA I will have these investigated.
