Vol. 567 No. 1
90 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the measures she intends taking to improve incentives for people with disability to take up paid employment, whereby such take-up does not bring about a reduction in living standards through the removal of secondary benefits. [13502/03]
The potential disincentive effects of the loss of secondary benefits, such as the medical card, fuel allowances, rent and mortgage supplements etc. for those who wish to move from social welfare dependency back into employment has been a cause of concern for a number of years. These benefits are administered by a number of Departments and agencies, including mine, and a range of measures has been introduced to mitigate the problems, including the retention of some secondary benefits in full or on a sliding scale for a number of years following the commencement of employment.
My Department provides a range of supports aimed at encouraging and assisting people on disability and illness payments to identify and take up available employment, training and other self-development opportunities, where appropriate. For instance, under the back to work scheme, people with disabilities and long-term illnesses can retain their social welfare payments on a sliding scale for three years if they take up full-time employment or four years if they take up self-employment.
Where people avail of these employment supports, the associated secondary benefits can be retained for the duration of the payment. It is estimated that there are in the region of 13,600 people in receipt of the various illness and disability payments who are availing of these employment supports.
Despite the improvements, which have been made in this area, I recognise there are still some problems in the operation of these supports, such as the fact that the existing arrangements may not be fully suitable for people with a partial incapacity. In this regard, my Department is undertaking a review of the various income maintenance payments for people who are ill and people with disabilities, as part of its programme of expenditure reviews. One of the key elements of this study is to examine the extent to which the illness and disability payment schemes support self-sufficiency and incentives to move into work, training or rehabilitation. The review, which is nearing completion, will be important in informing future policy development in this area. This is a complex area but I am confident that measures can be put in place to improve the situa tion for people with disabilities who want to participate in the active workforce.
I thank the Minister for her reply. Does the Minister accept that unemployment among people with disabilities is in the region of 80% and their uptake of full-time paid employment is hindered by the lack of ongoing supports, which seem to be available to other people in society? The need to retain secondary benefits, particularly health benefits, is greater among people with disabilities. Will the Minister initiate a wide-ranging review involving the agencies and NGOs that work in the area of disability to overcome the very real problems for people with disabilities entering the employment market and to overcome the continuing barriers, which unfortunately still exist, concerning the provision of certain payments in her Department?
I welcome the fact that the Department of Social and Family Affairs is carrying out a review of this matter. Taking up work again often provides rehabilitation for people with disabilities, particularly those with mental disabilities or depression. As part of her review the Minister should seriously consider allowing those people to at least retain their benefits in a similar manner to the three-year back to work scheme.
The working group will complete its work very soon and we will be able to publish its report and consider what our policy should be. I agree that access to employment and training is very important. We have some excellent initiatives on access to education through partnership with the employment agencies. IBEC has looked at employing people with disabilities and addressing the concerns there. It has decided to set up a fund with the county enterprise boards to encourage entrepreneurship for people who are disabled.
We are considering how people in receipt of some of our allowances can access proper training. There are programmes that are working very well. Pilots have taken place under the employment support services. These are new initiatives, which will provide greater access to employment. The working group is specifically looking at issues of secondary benefit. Despite what the Deputies might say about me, when we looked at any scheme this year those who were less well off and in particular those in receipt of disability allowances and illness payments were targeted for extra support and were not taken out of any of the existing schemes. There has been no change in access to those for people with disabilities.
They are also suffering from the cutbacks.
Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.
