Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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360. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason when an artist with a disability receives a grant from the Arts Council, their disability allowance is reduced or withdrawn, despite the well-documented additional costs associated with living with a disability; and his views on whether support for artistic work should be seen as separate from the basic supports needed to cover the cost of disability. [22768/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Disability Allowance is a means-tested payment for people with a disability who are aged between 16 and 66. In order to be eligible, the disability must be expected to last for at least one year. The allowance is also subject to a means test, a medical assessment and a habitual residency requirement. Support for artistic work in general is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport.

Social welfare legislation provides that, for means-tested social assistance schemes, all income and assets belonging to the claimant, and his or her spouse/partner where applicable, are assessable for means testing purposes. The purpose of the means test is to ensure that resources are directed to those with the greatest need for income supports by the State.

Disability Allowance is structured to support recipients to avail of opportunities to pursue employment, be that self-employment or insurable employment. When an individual commences employment, they can avail of an income disregard of €165 per week. This represents an increase of 38% since Budget 2021. In addition, 50% of earnings between €165 and €375 per week is also disregarded. This means that a person can earn up to €517.60 a week and still keep their entitlement to the minimum rate of payment and secondary benefits. There is also a capital disregard of €50,000.

If a customer in receipt of Disability Allowance receives income or a grant for a piece of work, the income would be assessed based on the number of weeks allocated for the work and taking into account the income disregards that apply for self-employment. In self-employment cases, it is important to note that income is taken to be the gross profit less allowable work-related expenses (but not drawings). Expenses directly related to self-employment can be offset against income.

Separately, the Department also seeks to support persons in receipt of Disability Allowance to pursue educational or training opportunities and, as a result, a number of disregards are in place. These include where a person is granted a bursary, stipend or scholarship towards completing a PhD (subject to an annual limit of €20,000 for up to four years) and the maintenance portion of a SUSI Higher Education Maintenance Grant.

The Department also supports social welfare recipients to avail of education and training opportunities through its Back to Education scheme, as well as by referrals to further education and training opportunities.

In recent Budgets, the Government has progressively improved payment rates and income disregards for disabled people. The weekly payment rates for Disability Allowance have increased by €41 over the last four years.

This Government recognises the additional costs associated with having a disability and is committed to improving outcomes for disabled people. That is why we have prioritised the development of a new National Disability Strategy; a cross-governmental strategy that will have a focus on improving access to services and bringing down these extra costs. In the Programme for Government, we have committed to introducing a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment and to reform the Disability Allowance Payment and remove anomalies in the current means test.

My Department is currently examining the best way of delivering an annual cost-of-disability payment, within the overall budgetary context, while a review of means testing across all schemes in the Department is underway.

The outcome of this review will be used to inform decisions regarding any further changes to means testing. All prospective changes to means testing arrangements will have to be considered in both an overall policy and budgetary context.