Mr. R?n?n Hession:

I am happy to take that back. We will have a look at that.

We engage with the DPOs. There is a constellation of stakeholder forms we use and DPOs are, more and more, dealing with them on a bilateral basis and participating in the various consultation forums. I expect that when it comes to the successor to the national inclusion strategy, their involvement will be important. I think DPOs have been inputting to the development of the autism innovation strategy. There was a consultation process last year, I understand. It is being led by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, which is the overall lead Department on disability across Government.

I take the Senator’s point on application forms. Other committee members have made that point. We are open to feedback. We do not look to make life more difficult than it has to be in terms of information required. We have tried to cut down our forms and to provide assistance to customers who need to be talked through it and need help and direction. Many of our schemes are statutory schemes. We are dealing with Oireachtas legislation in terms of what we have to satisfy ourselves on in terms of means and qualifying criteria. We have to go through that but will try to do it in as customer-friendly a way as possible. Some of the changes have been effective. We are processing applications much more quickly than previously. The numbers are meeting our targets, which themselves are quite challenging.

On appeal statistics, I have some figures which I will read through quickly but will send the text on to the committee as well, as members will want to digest it. In 2022, 29,480 claims for disability allowance were determined, of which 13,817 were decisions to award. A total of 5,435 appeals were processed. That is about 18% of all claims decided and about one third of unsuccessful claims. Of appeals received, 722 were allowed by the Department’s deciding officers following receipt of further evidence. In other words, 722 were sent back to the Department with more information for it to have another look and were then granted. Roughly half or 2,348 were allowed by appeals officers and 69 were withdrawn. All of that together means that claims awarded by appeals officers made up about 8% of new claim decisions in 2022 and about 17% of claims were awarded on the basis of a successful appeal. As of the end of 2021, the number of claims awaiting a decision was 2,500; there were 5,598 claims awaiting decision at the end of 2022, so there has been an increase in outstanding claims. I will give that speaking note to the clerk so the committee has the data. On any follow-up queries members have, we are happy to help. You have to do the walk-through of the figures. Any time I read that note, I have to read it more than once.

The Senator raised LGBTQI+ communities, especially when there is intersectionality with an autism diagnosis, and how they would fare under the pay-related benefit. The "simple" idea behind the pay-related benefit is that the level of payment you get is a portion of your prior income. The current jobseeker’s benefit system is run that way but over time, because it is a banded system and the bands have not moved, it has become in effect a flat-rate system. If you have been working for five years or more, roughly speaking, you will get 60% of prior gross income, and the cap will be €450. About 60% of average industrial wages should come in at about €450. A person on the average industrial wage will get 60% before the cap kicks on. For those who do not get that, which is those who have the two years or, in other words, people who would qualify for jobseeker’s benefit at the moment, the payment would be 50% with a cap of €300. At the moment the maximum jobseeker’s benefit is €220. We will continue some form of jobseeker’s benefit for casual and part-time workers, etc.

There is, separately, a look into how we might reform the means-tested jobseeker schemes. There is a skeleton idea in the straw man to invite some initial feedback. We had a stakeholder forum on the pay-related benefit last Friday in the city centre. For anyone unable to attend that, it was recorded and will be put in the video so people will get to see the presentation. We had international experts. I gave a presentation but there were also non-departmental presentations. It was about stimulating a discussion.

It is a straw man, which is where the Government says it is thinking of doing something but might not do anything. It is difficult when there is a complex new system. We will do this on disability as well. When there are many features to it, it is difficult to picture how it might look. It is like when you go to Ikea and they do a mock-up of an apartment. It is only when you see it mocked up you say you want to change certain things, you like certain features and so on. A straw man does that. It shows how a different system might look. Everything is customisable and can be changed. Nothing jumps out at me as to why that would be a concern to particular groups but the consultation process is open until the end of this month and we will be happy to meet people. If there are concerns, we encourage people to participate in the consultation process.