Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 11:

In page 8, after line 32, to insert the following:

“Report on individual means assessment for Disability Allowance

16.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas on options for assessing applicants to Disability Allowance on individual means, rather than the means of their partner or other household members.”.

I have spoken to this already. This is the same issue but it relates to the disability allowance in particular. As I said, there are specific issues here. We talked about situations for households and assumptions we make but in the case of disability allowance there are persons who are living alone who might wish to live with a friend, for example, but would not want to move into a situation where that friend is assumed to be financially supporting them. People want to have relationships that are just based on "I am a person and I live with you and I have a relationship with you". That could be romantic, a friendship or a family member. A person may wish to have a brother or sister come and live with them but may not necessarily want to become a dependant. Due to the way disability allowance is assessed, where a person with a disability is living with somebody else, it is assumed they will be a dependant or the person they live with is going to be financially responsible for them. There might be a person with a disability aged in their 30s who manages well when it comes to managing their disability. We know from the Indecon cost of disability report the additional costs are massive. There can be additional costs of up to €9,027 for items related to a disability somebody might need. Of course, the disability allowance is tied into a person's access to the medical card and all these other things. Thus, a person may have to choose between having enough financially to live - and again the disability allowance does not even meet these costs - but if they are forced to be in a situation where they jeopardise that simply by living with somebody, that really affects a person's financial independence and it can make it very lonely. That is something I have heard from people. If you are a person with a disability you want to be able to have relationships and you will not necessarily say I can only have a relationship with somebody where they cover these immense costs of my disability because the State no longer will.

This is just another example of where that individualisation piece could make a huge difference and ensure the relationship of those persons with a disability with the State and with the State supports is an independent relationship and unfounded assumptions are not necessarily made about the household they may be part of.