Disability allowance is a means-tested social welfare payment that is capped at €203 a week.
The number of people who receive the allowance has grown by nearly 10 per cent over the past two years, reaching almost 147,000 last year. Close to a quarter of the recipients were in Dublin.
John Dolan, chief executive of the Disability Federation of Ireland, says people with disabilities are at an increased risk of poverty:
“Of the people that are of working age, the great majority of those are living in poverty, and the risk of poverty rate for people with disabilities in Ireland was about 37 per cent in 2018... for the general population that percentage was at 14 per cent.”
Over €1.7 billion was paid out in disability allowance payments last year, which was €119 million more than in 2018.
However, Mr Dolan says it is not enough for each individual on the payment:
“€203 a week – that doesn’t give people much scope at all, and they have more calls on their disposable income, on that 200 every week for a variety of reasons such as the extra cost of actual practical living. For instance if someone has a motorised wheelchair, they’ve got to plug that in at night so that’s drawing on their electricity.”
