Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When carer’s allowance is being assessed and the application comes in, the figures I have indicate that it takes an average of five weeks. Those figures have come down considerably over the past number of years. In 2021, applications were turned around on an average of five weeks. I will go through the figures later on the appeals but the fact is that many of the applications fail in the first instance because the medical evidence is not correct. The Deputy knows this from dealing with her constituents, the same as I do, that the medical evidence might not always be complete but the form goes in. Then when further medical evidence is provided the application is often successful. We have also simplified the form for applying for disability allowance. If people are unsure about appeals, the Citizens Information Board is there to give people advice on what their entitlements are. It provides an excellent service and is available and has a very good website. We use it a great deal in our constituency office as no doubt the Deputy does also. We often find that people come into our constituency offices to see why their application was not successful. In the majority of cases where applications are unsuccessful, it is because the medical information has not been provided. That is obviously needed to make the assessment.

It is fair to say that we have done a great deal of work to support people with disabilities. There is always more to be done, and that is what we continue to focus on. The effort to help people with disabilities is required across a number of Departments, whether it is in the context of housing, transport, education, health or whatever. I have outlined what I have done in the Department of Social Protection. We have done a great deal in a very short period. I have reformed the carer’s allowance means test by significantly increasing the amount of savings and weekly earnings a carer can have. I am the first Minister in 14 years to do anything on the carer’s means test. I have increased the rate of the wage subsidy scheme in the budget. That is a very important support to encourage employers to hire people with disabilities. I do not think the rate has been touched for more than a decade.

I have also made changes to the income disregards for disability allowance in the budget. Last year, when there were doubts over whether the local ability providers would continue to be funded because the European funding had run out, I made sure we found the funding to keep that programme going. I met with Des Henry and the ability providers throughout the country. Indeed all the members know the great work that they do. During the pandemic we made sure that people on carer’s or disability payments who lost their part-time work, got the pandemic unemployment payment. That meant they were able to get two social welfare payments to help them. When a clear injustice was brought to my attention regarding PhD students on disability allowance as I mentioned earlier, I acted in a matter of days and introduced Catherine’s law. As I said, we have now extended that to those in receipt of the blind pension.

As stated earlier, the number of people receiving payments such as disability allowance, carer's allowance and invalidity has increased by approximately 40% since 2015. This means that my Department is now helping and supporting more people through those payments than ever before. The total spending on our various disability supports this year will be close to €5 billion. I would, of course, like to do more.

Every Minister would like to do more but I must work within the realities of government and finite resources. We cannot do everything we want to do at once. I assure members that supporting people with disabilities and carers will be a priority for me once again in this year's budget. I am absolutely committed to working with the Minister of State, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, and my colleagues across the Government to improve supports for people with disabilities. A lot of work is being done.

The Deputy asked me what are we doing to tackle poverty among people with disabilities. The 2020 at risk of poverty or social exclusion rate for people with disabilities is 35.9%, which is a decrease from the 2019 rate of 37.5%. This year's budget package for people with disabilities specifically included measures that will help to address poverty among people with disabilities. These included a €5 increase in the maximum weekly rate of disability allowance, blind pension, carer's allowance, carer's benefit, illness benefit and invalidity pension, with proportionate increases for people getting a reduced rate; an increase in the rates for a qualified child under and over 12 years of age; an increase in the living alone allowance from €20 to €22 a week, thus benefiting people in receipt of the disability allowance or invalidity pension and who live alone; and an increase in the fuel allowance to €33 per week, benefiting people in receipt of the disability allowance or invalidity pension who qualify for the payment. For those people who are working or in a position to take up work, the measures include an increase of €25 per week in the upper earnings disregard for the disability allowance and the blind pension, from €350 to €375; an increase in the general weekly means disregard for the disability allowance from €2.50 to €7.60 per week, resulting in an increase of up to €5.10 per week where a person on disability has means; an extension of access to support grants for jobseekers with disabilities through employability contractors; and an increase in the rate of the wage subsidy scheme available for private sector employers by one hour to €6.30 per hour, which is a significant increase equivalent to 60% of the national minimum wage. We have, therefore, provided significant supports to help people with disabilities to get work and we incentivise employers to take on people with disabilities.

The Deputy mentioned the scheme for artists. As she knows, the arts and culture task force recommended the introduction of a pilot basic income scheme for artists. This commitment was reflected in the national economy recovery plan. Budget 2022 included an announcement of €25 million for a pilot basic income guarantee scheme for artists. My colleague, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, has lead responsibility for the initiative. The Minister and her Department are progressing the matter. Any issues regarding the interaction between the new pilot payment and existing payments by my Department, such as the disability allowance, will be addressed in due course.

We have done considerable work to improve the situation for people who provide care and those who are on disability payments. More can always be done and we will keep all these matters under review.

On claims, significant improvements in new claim decision-making have been achieved over recent years for the carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit. This has been maintained by my Department throughout the period of the pandemic. The average time to award a carer's allowance in 2021 is four weeks compared with seven weeks in 2020 and 14 weeks in 2019. The average time to award carer's benefit in 2021 is four weeks compared with five weeks in 2020 and 12 weeks in 2019. Those figures have improved, especially considering the huge volume of work processed by the staff in the Department of Social Protection during 2020 and 2021. Many millions of transactions were processed to ensure people received the pandemic unemployment payment. To achieve that level of output and make these improvements in timeframes was quite something given the circumstances in which staff had to work.

I believe I have covered most of the issues raised by the Deputy.