Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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293. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if there are plans to reform the application form for domiciliary care allowance; if he is aware of the concerns of support groups, questioning the detail required and complex nature of the form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8578/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is a monthly payment to a parent or guardian in respect of a child aged under 16 who has a severe disability and requires care and attention substantially over and above that usually needed by a child of the same age. This care and attention must be given by another person, effectively full-time, so that the child can 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.

Although I am aware of the concerns around the level of detail required when completing a DCA application form, the nature of the scheme and the variety of possible cases lends itself to a broad application form requiring questions across a variety of care requirements. As the scheme is open to children from birth to 16 years of age and is based on the care requirements compared to a child of a similar age, I understand that some parents and guardians can find that some questions do not relate to their child due to their particular age and their particular disability.

Furthermore, as the scheme is based on the care needs of their child compared to children of the same age, many parents can find some of the questions difficult to answer. The complexity of the scheme means that there is a balance that my department must use when considering what questions need to be asked and the level of detail required versus the impact that the application process can have on the applicant.

My department is currently working to extend the MyWelfare service to provide for an online application process for DCA. As part of this work, my officials took the opportunity to explore how the design of the online application form might make the process easier for applicants.

During the design stage, officials of my department analysed each question asked during the application process with the aim of ensuring that the questions were relevant, easily understood and that thoughtful and modern language was used when referring to the additional needs of children. This has led to some questions in the current design being re-written, some having additional explanatory subtext added and the use of MyWelfare has enabled the use of web links to provide further information on the scheme’s criteria.

The design research for the new online application service for DCA also involved consulting with a number of national carers’ advocacy groups. The feedback received as part of this consultation has resulted in several changes being actioned to enhance the application form, balancing this feedback with feedback from customers as well as with the legislation, the broad age range and care scenarios that DCA caters for, and the ambition to support the varying abilities and general understanding of both carers and children. The application is progressing in development and my department will be continuing to monitor carers’ queries and feedback, as well as their engagement with the online application when it goes live, with the aim of supporting further enhancements.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.