Burton rejects idea of change in disability allowance criteria

THE MINISTER for Social Protection has denied that changes have been made to eligibility criteria for disability allowances that would make it more difficult for people to qualify.

Joan Burton said “nothing underhand is going on” in the department and there had been “absolutely no change in criteria or conditions”. The increase in refusals was due to the increase in the number of people applying, she said.

However, the Opposition has responded by saying her comments yesterday had continued to “mislead” people and there were still high refusal rates.

Fianna Fáil social protection spokesman Willie O’Dea said there had been a surge in rejections for the allowance and families were facing delays of up to 12 months in processing applications.

“The facts are there for all to see: three out of every five applications for disability allowance have been rejected since the start of this year,” he said. “Between January and April, the Department of Social Protection turned down 4,823 applications. The Minister’s response to my concerns has been to say that the department is changing computer systems. I find this totally unacceptable.”

Ms Burton said fewer than 50,000 people got disability before 2000 but the figure was now 100,000. The number of applications for disability allowance from people receiving other welfare payments such as jobseeker’s allowance had risen, which was common in other European countries in times of recession, she added.

Ms Burton denied criteria for payments to carers had changed after criticism from Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who claimed some applicants had been waiting up to 40 weeks for their documents to be processed.

“By law, the officials in the Department of Social Protection are required to examine the application and to make a judgment,” said Ms Burton. “If they require some kind of medical documentation to support the application and that’s not there at the beginning, then inevitably people are going to face long delays.”

She said the importance of carers was recognised by the Government and provisions had been made in the last budget to protect their allowances. The department was transferring “tens of thousands” of payments on to a new IT system which would improve waiting times for decisions on carer’s allowance and other payments, according to the Minister. The transfer is due to be completed by the end of September.

Mr O’Dea said the Government had taken an incredibly “cold-hearted approach” to these allowances. “The savage cuts . . . have left families across the country under enormous pressure,” he added.