Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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39. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a commitment will be given to carry out an investigation into the high rate of refusal for the disability allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14879/22]

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 16 or over and under the age of 66.  The applicant must be suffering from an injury, disease, congenital deformity or physical or mental illness or defect, which has lasted for one year or is expected to last for 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.  The person must also satisfy a means test and be habitually resident in the State.  

At the end of December 2021, there were 154,106 recipients of DA in payment.

In general, social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions like DA can require a large amount of evidence on which to base the decision on entitlement.  Before a decision can be made on entitlement to DA, evidence must be provided in respect of the person’s medical condition, the extent to which it restricts them from taking up employment, their means and their habitual residency.  If the required documentation is requested and is not submitted within the allotted timeframe it may result in a case being disallowed in the initial stages.  If the missing documentation is later supplied the case is reviewed and may be subsequently awarded.

Any unfavourable decision of a Deciding Officer (DO) is communicated in writing to the claimant setting out the reasons for the decision.  It is open to any person to request a review and or an appeal of any statutory decision made by my Department and any new evidence or information provided to my Department will be considered as part of this review or appeal.  It is important to note that any decision of a DO can be revised in light of additional evidence without it ever being in the appeal process.  This can result in several reviews being carried out on a single application and several disallowances being counted against a decision which is then ultimately allowed.

Our operational areas continuously seek to optimise their processes for applicants and have taken a number of initiatives to try and encourage applicants to provide all relevant information with their application at the outset.  One of the most important initiatives in this regard was a redesign of the DA application forms which included clearly highlighting the information that needs to be submitted with the application in order to expedite the claim process and in order to minimise the number of disallowances.  The redesign was carried out with input from representative bodies and advocacy groups via the disability consultative forum.  The new DA application form was recently put into operation and my Department is monitoring the improvements arising from the redesign.

I would encourage all people who apply for Disability Allowance, or other Social Welfare payments, to provide as much information as possible with their application so that their claim can be decided at the earliest date possible.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.