11. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection when he will introduce a permanent cost-of-disability payment as promised in the programme for Government. [2794/26]
Sentiment score: 0.12
The programme for Government promises an annual cost-of-disability support payment, suggesting that it will be incrementally increased. Instead of introducing that in the last budget, the Government introduced an incredible series of cruel cuts, totalling over €1,400 for disabled people. When is the Minister going to right this wrong? What level of payment is he going to introduce? When is he going to introduce this annual cost-of-disability payment?
Sentiment score: -0.11
It says a lot about the priorities of the Government that it can have fast-tracking of VAT cuts for fast food giants and developers whereas, although it has this on-the-paper commitment to an annual cost-of-disability payment, the payment does not come in. Instead, the Government cuts disabled people's income substantially. We know and the Government acknowledges - it has commissioned the report itself - that it costs a lot of money to be disabled in this country. Adjusted for inflation, the Indecon report states it is between about €10,000 and €15,000 a year. It means an extra €500 a week. That is how much disabled people need to come close to a normal standard of living. The rate of enforced deprivation for disabled people who are unable to work is massive at 39%. The rate of consistent poverty is one in five. We have the lowest rate in the entire European Union of disabled people who are in work. The Government had a €400 lump sum disability payment last year. That was a drop in the ocean. Far from increasing it as promised, however, the Government actually abolished it completely and then cut a whole series of other payments, putting people into even more dire poverty. That needs to be reversed immediately.
Sentiment score: -0.20
If the Minister wants to quote payments, we can quote payments. The Irish Wheelchair Association, Access for All Ireland and the Disability Federation of Ireland have done very good work in making people aware of the cruel cuts that the Government has introduced in the last budget. The disability support grant was €400 previously. It has been removed, meaning a loss of €400. The living alone allowance saw a loss of €200. The fuel allowance saw a loss of €160. The October double payment saw a loss of €254. The loss of the electricity credit was another loss of €250. This is a total net loss for disabled people of €1,404. There was a powerful briefing in the audiovisual room yesterday, where we heard from all these organisations and from disabled people about the extreme crisis that they were in. One woman said her life was a balancing act between heating her home or feeding her children. Another disabled woman spoke about how she was no longer able to afford to put her child in a crèche. These are horrendous stories and the Government has made these people's lives worse. It could reverse that. We will come to the next question on an emergency payment while we are waiting for this annual cost-of-disability payment to come through.
Sentiment score: -0.24
13. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will introduce an emergency winter payment for disabled people to compensate them for the cuts imposed on them in the Budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2795/26]
Sentiment score: -0.20
This follows on from a number of previous questions. I would say disabled people watching this at home are screaming at their television screens because they are being told by the Minister not to worry as a permanent payment is coming. What they are saying, and I quote Joan Carthy, is that people are suffering today and they cannot wait another day, never mind another four years. They desperately need an emergency €400 winter cost-of-disability payment now to make up just a fraction of the cuts the Minister has implemented. This is the ask and it is very simple.
Sentiment score: -0.24
I find it bizarre that the Minister is saying he has responded. He has not responded. There is an ask that has come as a consequence of his budget decisions, which cut a bit over €114 from disabled people. While it is true that the Minister has given a little bit of this back through the small increases, he has left people worse off to the tune of more than €1,000 per annum. Their ask is that they need, at the very least, an emergency winter payment now. The Minister is claiming he has responded to that with the original budget, which is where the cuts were made in the first place. Disabled people are responding to the budget. It is why they have come up with their ask. In response to the Minister's point about services, which is what we hear non-stop, disabled people would say that the majority of them are not in receipt of services. This is not addressing the additional costs they have as a consequence of being disabled. Before the latest round of costs, 13.6% of disabled people were unable to heat their homes properly. One in five are in arrears on their utility bills. It is a very simple ask for an emergency payment now. Disabled people cannot wait for this process. They cannot wait for the next budget.
Sentiment score: -0.10