Reversal of disability payment cut proves FF unity - Hanafin

MINISTER FOR Social Affairs Mary Hanafin has said a Government decision to reverse cuts to the disability allowance demonstrates “anything but” a lack of cohesion in the Fianna Fáil party.

Ms Hanafin said the Cabinet had decided that the motivation for cutting the disability allowance was right as they did not want to label people unfit for work at 16.

But she said the Government realised the sudden nature of the change meant it would have a major impact on many families.

Under plans to cut disability allowance, the monthly payment of €791.20 was to end for those aged 16 and 17, to be replaced by the domiciliary care allowance, worth €300 per month. It would have affected about 2,000 teenagers and saved the Government an estimated €6 million in 2009 and €17 million a year from 2010.

The decision to reverse the cut was “the right thing to do for those families next year. The cost will be borne by my department, so it doesn’t affect the budgetary situation in any way, but it’s never wrong to do the right thing”.

Ms Hanafin also said yesterday she expected the number of people claiming unemployment benefit to rise to 290,000 next year, an increase of some 50,000.

She said her department had been given the largest allocation in the Budget, some €19.6 billion, to help negotiate some of the “most difficult economic circumstances” seen in Ireland for many years.

“We will be able to provide for when people who lose their jobs are looking for jobseekers allowance and benefit. We’re there to support them and to help them.”

Ms Hanafin said one of the big pressures on the Government was social welfare payments and that was why Taoiseach Brian Cowen had been seeking a new type of partnership. She called on people to pull together to cope with the difficult economic situation ahead.

“We’ve had partnership in this country for 20 years where we have been talking about pay increase, new development, new investments going into all areas. Now that times are tougher, we’re calling for the employers and employees to work with us to help us get out of the difficult economic situation.”

She said she did not believe there would be any more changes made to the Budget, despite pressure from the education sector.

“We had a debate on education and we accept it is difficult. It is difficult for schools. There were difficult decisions made in this Budget that are affecting families all over the country. We’re aware of that, but unfortunately if we’re going to get a turnaround in the economy, these are the type of implementations we have to do.”

The Minister also said comparisons of the current economic problems to those of the 1980s did not take account of how “overstretched” personal finances had become because of increased credit card spending.

Ms Hanafin was speaking as the Money Advice and Budgeting Service launched an appeal to consumers to avoid letting the “ghost of Christmas haunt them in the new year”.

Stephen Collins: 13; Noel Whelan, Breda O’Brien, Garret Fitzgerald; page 14.

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