Vol. 516 No. 6
341 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if his Department has received a submission from the national representative council representing people with disabilities in training or long-term sheltered employment; his views on Government policy in relation to the amounts paid to this sector; and his further views on the demand for a minimum payment to a person on disability allowance of £100 per week. [9025/00]
The provision of sheltered employment and training for people with disabilities has, until now, been the responsibility of the Department of Health and Children and, more particularly, the NRB. However, new administrative and infrastructural arrangements are being introduced shortly on foot of the recommendations of the Establishment Group for the National Disability Authority and Disability Support Service. These new arrangements involve the transfer of responsibility for employment and training supports for people with disabilities to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Following this transfer the pro vision of employment and training supports for people with disabilities will be mainstreamed and will be provided by FÁS.
In the light of this impending transfer, the employment and training supports for people with disabilities are being reviewed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and FÁS. In this regard the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness provides that the new employment and training arrangements will have, as a priority, clear progression routes for people with disabilities from sheltered work, supported work and sheltered employment to employment options in the open labour market.
The Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs is currently in discussion with FÁS and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to see how best the various employment and training supports within the social welfare system can be aligned with the new structures being developed so as to eliminate any potential disincentives to people with disabilities in taking up available employment and training opportunities.
On the question of the level of payments to people with disabilities, the recent social welfare budget package, which is the biggest ever social welfare budget allocation amounting to over £428 million on a full year basis, provides, inter alia, for a £7 a week increase for pensioners aged 66 and over, a special increase of £5.90 for invalidity pensioners under 65 years and a £4 a week increase for all other social welfare recipients. In addition, special increases in the rates of qualified adult allowances are being provided as part of an overall strategy to increase this allowance to 70% of the main rate over the next three budgets.
As part of the process of aligning tax and social welfare changes by 2001, these increases are being paid four weeks earlier this year, from the beginning of May.
In addition to the increases in the weekly rates of payment the social welfare budget package also contains a number of other measures to improve the position of people with disabilities. One of these measures will be of particular benefit to people with disabilities engaged in training and in sheltered employment. The level of earnings from rehabilitative training and employment which may be disregarded for disability allowance and blind pension purposes is being increased by £25 per week, from £50 to £75, with effect from April. In addition, this enhanced disregard is being extended to cover people in rehabilitative self-employment.
Another budget improvement which is designed to further encourage and facilitate people with disabilities in accessing the open labour market is the extension of the back to work allowance and back to education allowance schemes, which currently apply to recipients of disability allowance and blind pension, to apply also to invalidity pensioners and people on unemployability supplement.
