Vol. 534 No. 3
240 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of people in receipt of disability allowance, previously disabled person's maintenance allowance, whose weekly rate of payments has been reduced or discontinued in the past four years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10753/01]
In all my Department's schemes there is a review mechanism to ensure that entitlement conditions continue to be satisfied. Continuing entitlement under the disability allowance scheme is dependent on the person satisfying both a means test and the medical eligibility criteria. This is achieved through a process of selective and periodic review of appropriate cases.
There were 55,221 persons in receipt of disability allowance as of 31 March 2001. During the period April 1997 to April 2001, 34,500 recipients who were formerly in receipt of disabled person's maintenance allowance were medically reviewed. Of these, 46 recipients have had their allowance terminated on the grounds that they no longer satisfied the medical criteria for receipt of the allowance.
