Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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143. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated annual expenditure on the disability allowance for 2021; the estimated additional cost of increasing disability allowance payments by €5, €15 and €20, respectively for those currently in receipt of this payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35149/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The estimated expenditure on Disability Allowance in 2021 is €1.8 billion.

The costings sought by the Deputy are contained in the table below.

The costs shown above include a proportionate increase for qualified adults, and are based on the estimated number of recipients in 2021. This costing is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients.

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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144. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated additional cost of increasing the upper limit of the earnings disregard for the disability allowance from €350 to €400, €450 and €500, respectively; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35150/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Disability Allowance (DA) is a means-tested payment for people with a specified disability who are aged between 16 and 66. The disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, a means test and a habitual residency test.

DA is structured to support recipients to avail of opportunities to pursue their own employment ambitions, be that self-employment or in insurable employment. When an individual commences employment, they can avail of an income disregard of €140 per week. In addition, a 50% taper on earnings between €140 and €350 is also applied (disregarded), for the purpose of the means test.

The ESRI SWITCH microsimulation model has been used for the purposes of the estimate requested. The additional cost of increasing the upper limit of the earnings disregard for the disability allowance from €350 to €400, €450 and €500, respectively are set out in tabular form below.

It is important to note that SWITCH is a tax-benefit microsimulation developed by the ESRI. It provides estimatesof full-year policy changes, using data from the CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions. The CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions is a representative sample, but it is quite small. As Disability Allowance is a relatively small scheme in terms of recipients, there may be issues around sample size when running costings. The microsimulation does not take into account, for example, persons who left DA and who may re-apply as a consequence of the increased upper limit of earnings.

Table: Disability Allowance Disregard Upper Limit Increase from €350.00 to €500.00 in increments of €50.00