Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

No changes have been implemented in recent years to the underlying eligibility conditions for disability allowance. The budget 2012 proposals relating to disability allowance have been referred to the independent advisory group on tax and social welfare, under the chairmanship of the barrister, Ms Ita Mangan. I expect the review will be completed by September 2012.

Disability allowance is a means-tested payment for people with a specified disability whose income falls below certain limits and who are aged more than 16 and less than 66, and are habitually resident in the State. Expenditure in 2011 was more than €1 billion in respect of some 103,000 recipients.

A person's means are assessed to determine the rate of payment he or she is entitled to receive. The requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain social assistance schemes, including disability allowance and child benefit with effect from 1 May 2004. A person who does not satisfy the habitual residence condition is not eligible for specified social welfare payments, including disability allowance, regardless of citizenship, nationality, immigration status or any other factor. The purpose of this condition is to safeguard the social welfare system from abuse by restricting access for people who are not economically active and who have little or no established connection with Ireland.

The number of claims for disability allowance refused for any reasons in 2010, 2011 and to end of March 2012 was 10,316, 14,116 and 3,458 respectively. The percentages of claims refused in 2010, 2011 and the first quarter of 2012 were 54%, 58% and 60%, respectively. These statistics refer to initial decisions only and do not reflect cases that were subsequently allowed following a deciding officer's review of additional information or evidence supplied, or following a determination by an appeals officer of the Social Welfare Appeals Office. The appeals office tells me that a total of 4,758 disability allowance appeals were determined by appeals officers in 2011, of which 1,830, or 38%, were successful or partly successful and 2,928, or 62%, were not successful.

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