Pringle: Means tests for disability allowance ignore the cost of disability
- Updated: 23rd September 2024
Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, said means tests for disability allowance ignore the reality of disabled people’s lives, as he supported a motion calling for emergency action on disability and special needs provision.
Addressing the Dáil on Thursday, Deputy Pringle said: “Firstly, I would like to highlight the urgency needed in the full ratification of the optional protocol of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
“The fact that the protocol and the amendments to the EPSEN Act have been left to languish unaddressed for close to two decades is one of the clearest indicators of the lack of care and understanding this and previous governments have for disabled people, the families of disabled children and indeed carers.
“Secondly, I would like to emphasise the importance of acknowledging the real cost of disability via the abolishment of the means test and welcome the concept of a universal payment.
“The means test perpetuates poverty and verges on degradation. For example, if a disabled person gets married and their spouse earns over a certain amount, they lose their entitlement. This fully ignores the realities of disabled people and the cost of disability, as well as the barriers to employment. It creates an economic co-dependency that is detrimental to the disabled person and their family,” he said.
The deputy was speaking on the People Before Profit-Solidarity Motion re Disability and Special Needs Provision.
Deputy Pringle said: “Needless to say, the means test indicates a lack of understanding of why there is a need for such a support and what the cost of disability truly is.
“The obstacles that disabled people face on a daily basis are immeasurable – transport, shopping, accommodation, employment, education. I task anyone who feels that this means test is appropriate to spend one day overcoming these same hurdles,” he said.
The deputy said: “Similarly, I welcome the proposal to introduce a guaranteed living wage for carers that is not means tested and is constitutionally protected. As with the ignorance to the cost of disability, this government has continually shown that it has no clue as to what role carers actually provide.
“Means testing carers merely serves to further trap families impacted by disability in poverty. It is a slap in the face to countless family carers who often have already overcome much upheaval in their home and work lives. We should be showing carers gratitude and support for the millions upon millions of euro that they save the State,” he said.
Deputy Pringle said: “The statistics, the numbers, the graphs and the data must be used to propel us forward in making these vital changes. What must not happen is that we lose sight of the lived realities that have created these facts and figures.
“Every percentage listed can be distilled to children at home, waiting for a place in our education system with their peers. Their parents are begging and battling a system that won’t recognise their child’s basic human rights,” he said.
