Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

In the social welfare budget, I announced that the age of eligibility for entitlement to disability allowance would be increased from 16 to 18 years for new claimants with effect from 1 January 2009. As an alleviating measure, the age for entitlement to the domiciliary care allowance would be increased from 16 to 18 years from the same date. These measures were estimated to save €5.6 million on my Department's Vote while giving rise to a cost of €1.4 million on the HSE Vote. Accordingly, the net saving to the Exchequer in 2009 was expected to be of the order of €4.2 million.

The changes announced in the budget were designed to address concerns raised about the appropriateness of paying young people a social welfare payment in their own right at the age of 16. It was feared that receiving the payment at an early age could undermine the incentive to pursue work, training or education options and cause them to become welfare dependent too early.

Following the budget I met six different groups representing people with disabilities and disability service providers. At these meetings, the underlying principle of the budget measure, namely, that it is inappropriate to pay a social welfare payment to a 16 year old in his or her own right, was not seriously contested. The key concern expressed by the groups related to the loss of expected income at short notice to families of young people with disabilities.

Following these meetings, I recommended to the Government that the disability allowance continue to be paid to 16 and 17 year olds pending a full review of the scheme. The review is considering a wide range of issues as identified by groups representing people with disabilities, their families and service providers, and will take account of a forthcoming report on disability and illness benefits by the OECD. It will also draw on new data published by the Central Statistics Office last week from the national disability survey 2006.

An amount of €1.4 million which will not now be required for the domiciliary care allowance measure will be transferred from the HSE Vote to my Department. Accordingly, the net impact on social welfare expenditure of not proceeding with the budget proposal is €4.2 million. This represents just 0.02% of projected overall social welfare expenditure in 2009 and will be accommodated by ongoing efficiencies across the whole range of the Department's activities next year. It will not be necessary to introduce further measures affecting entitlements or payments.

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