Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 109: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if children with autism spectrum disorder are eligible for the domiciliary care allowance; if there were any changes to the eligibility criteria for the domiciliary care allowance when it was transferred from the Health Service Executive to the Department of Social Protection; the refusal rate for the domiciliary care allowance when it was assessed by the HSE in 2008; the refusal rate for the domiciliary care allowance assessed by her in 2010; the percentage of refusals of the domiciliary care allowance overturned on appeal; the set criteria to determine if a child is eligible for the domiciliary care allowance and the most common grounds now for refusal of the domiciliary care allowance. [8767/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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In order to qualify for Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) a child must be under 16 years, live at home with the person providing the care, be ordinarily resident in the state and must have a severe disability requiring continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of the care and attention normally required by a child of the same age. This extra care must be likely to be required for at least 12 months.

Eligibility for DCA is not based on the type of impairment or disease, but on the resulting lack of function of body or mind which means that the child needs extra care and attention. No condition or disability automatically qualifies a child for DCA, nor does any disability automatically rule out a claim as each case is individually assessed on its own merit. The most common reason for refusal of DCA is that the child does not satisfy the medical requirement in relation to the level of extra care and attention required.

The eligibility criteria for DCA are broadly the same as when the scheme was administered by the Health Service Executive. The main change to the scheme since it transferred to the Department is that it is now a statutory scheme while prior to the transfer the eligibility criteria was set out by way of a yearly circular from the Department of Health and Children. The refusal rate when the scheme was administered by the HSE is reported to have been approximately 20%, but as it was administered separately by each HSE area, consistency could not be guaranteed and the refusal rate varied considerably from area to area.

The current refusal rate on first application is approximately 60%. However this falls to 50% following reviews of applications undertaken as a result of additional medical information being supplied by the parents that was either not available or not submitted when the initial application was made. Of the 633 DCA appeals decided by the Social Welfare Appeals Office to December 2010, 38% were allowed.