Written answers
Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Social Welfare Benefits
Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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153. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 701 of 7 November 2023, to detail the benefits available to people who have a disability; and to detail the number of people currently in receipt of each of these benefits. [55669/23]
Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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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 the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, means test and Habitual Residency conditions.
At the end of November 2023 there were 162,184 individuals supported through DA. All these recipients have a Free Travel entitlement. Records indicate that there were 55,670 of these DA recipients who were also in receipt of Household Benefits.
The following is a breakdown of DA recipients in receipt of supplementary allowances.
| Number of Qualified Adults | 15,233 |
|---|---|
| Number of child Dependents – Full rate Full Rate Aged Over 12 - 15,730 Full Rate Aged under 12 – 16,251 | 31,981 |
| Number of child dependents- Half rate Half Rate Aged Over 12 – 5,902 Half Rate Aged under 12- 7,098 | 13,000 |
| Recipients of Living Alone Allowance | 34,240 |
| Recipients of Island Allowance | 57 |
Recognising that all work is rehabilitative, the DA scheme is structured to encourage recipients to avail of opportunities to engage in either insurable employment or self-employment. When an individual engages in work, they can avail of an income disregard of 100% of the first €165 earned per week. 50% of earnings between €165 and €375 are also disregarded for the purpose of the means test. Any amounts over €375 are assessed in full. This disregard is available to all DA recipients who engage in employment and there are no restrictions on the hours worked each week.
Under the make work pay initiative, where a DA recipient's means exceed the limits, even after the disregard is applied to their earnings, they are entitled to retain their free travel (FT) pass for five years. My Department has also put in place a system for the fast-track reinstatement of DA for people with disabilities who have taken up or returned to an employment which subsequently did not work out within 12 months.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
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