'Welfare trap' seen as hindering the disabled

The "welfare trap", in which low-paid workers stand to lose State benefits if they enter low-paid employment, has been indentified as one of the main barriers to people with disabilities entering the workplace. Carl O'Brien reports.

A report by the National Disability Authority (NDA), published yesterday, said that such barriers meant people with disabilities were 2½ times less likely to be in work than those without disabilities.

The report said that a disabled person would lose their medical card and benefits such as mobility allowance, worth €142 a month, if they entered full-time work on a minimum wage.

It also questioned the use of the medical card as a "passport" for receiving disability aids, and issued a number of recommendations aimed at improving access to the workplace.

These include:

Introducing a "disability card" which would guarantee the holder comprehensive healthcare and related series without a means test, or increasing the income limit for the medical card;

A special disability payment. to compensate for the extra cost of living which people with disabilities face;

Greater leadership to turn the 3 per cent employment quota for disabled people in the public sector into a reality;

More co-ordination of policies and services impacting on employment of people with disabilities.

The report says obstacles to entering the workplace are also contributing to poverty rates in disabled households of almost twice the national average.

The chairwoman of the NDA, Ms Angela Kerins, said the figures illustrated the need for adequate resourcing of the disability sector, and called for publication of the Disability Bill.

"We would like to see the Government publish the Bill, deal with the issues surrounding the welfare trap, and demonstrate their intent by ensuring the Estimates address multi-annual funding so we can see what resources are promised in black and white," she said.

The report also showed that support schemes for people with disabilities were working to varying degrees of success.

The 291 people involved in the Employment Support Scheme - in which a wage subsidy is provided to employers who recruit people with disabilities - are well below the target of 1,000 places.

The report's authors note that if the scheme was to achieve participation rates similar to Denmark, take-up of the initiative would be 30 times greater than it is at present.