Professor Eilion?ir Flynn:

A number of steps could be taken quickly if there was the political will to do so, for example, further progress on income disregards and ways of decoupling secondary benefits from other social protection payments so that, if people have a medical need for a medical card, that card is provided regardless of their income levels. We have acknowledged that there is a major disincentive for people to consider other opportunities if their medical cards are potentially in the balance.

We have shown that decoupling is already a possibility for certain groups. That number could be expanded considerably, which would have a significant short-term benefit on people's daily lives by addressing some of the cost-of-living challenges we have discussed.

More work needs to be done on a universal basic income, and additional costs of disability will need to be factored in. For a long time, there have been research and policy recommendations on introducing a cost-of-disability payment. It is a question of having the political will to achieve that. We do not need to look far to find examples of good practice. We could learn from the lessons of comparative jurisdictions by reducing the bureaucratic complexity of systems of entitlement that people have to navigate so that they can easily access flexible supports that are necessary for them to have lives of dignity.