Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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696. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of children whose parents received domiciliary care allowance up to the child turning 16 years of age that had their disability allowance rejected in the past five years. [21805/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is a monthly payment in respect of a child aged under 16 with a disability so severe that the child requires care and attention and/or supervision substantially in excess of another child of the same age. This care and attention must be provided to allow the child to deal with the activities of daily living. The child must be likely to require this level of care and attention for at least 12 months. The guidelines state that the payment is not based on the type of disability but on the resulting physical and/or mental impairment which means that the child’s care needs are substantially more than another child of the same age. The payment is not means tested. DCA is paid to the parent/guardian of the child.

Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and as a result of which they are substantially restricted in undertaking work which would otherwise be suitable having regard to the person’s age, experience and qualifications. DA is subject to medical, means and habitual residency conditions. DA is paid directly to the individual.

The Department does not collate the requested statistics due to the differences of the qualifying conditions of the two schemes and the recipients of each scheme being dissimilar.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the deputy.