John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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277. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the guidelines regarding the circumstances considered by his Department when a person on disability allowance applies to work for a number of hours each week whereby it is deemed to be therapeutic for the person. [6747/17]

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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A condition for receipt of Disability Allowance (DA) is that a person has an injury, disease or physical or mental disability that has continued (or may be expected to continue for at least one year) and that as a result of this disability, is substantially restricted in undertaking work that would otherwise be suitable for a person of his/her age, experience and qualifications.

The DA scheme is structured to encourage recipients to avail of opportunities to engage in rehabilitative work where this is appropriate. When an individual engages in rehabilitative work, he/she can avail of the income disregard of €120 per week and 50% of earnings between €120 and €350 is also disregarded in the DA means test.

Approval is sought in the first instance from my Department in order for the work to be considered as rehabilitative. The term ‘rehabilitative’ is not defined in legislation and is broadly interpreted in administrative practice as including appropriate work that would be regarded as good for the person and would be expected to result in more positive outcomes in symptom levels, self-esteem, quality of life and social functioning.

The claimant must forward a letter from his/her own doctor indicating that the work is rehabilitative and must outline the proposed employment, number of hours to be worked and the level of remuneration. A deciding officer, who may seek the opinion of a Medical Assessor, decides, having assessed all the evidence, on whether the work is rehabilitative. In the majority of cases, the medical and other evidence supplied by the client, is sufficient to establish whether the work is rehabilitative in nature.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.