Social Welfare Schemes

Tuesday, 22 October 2024

Questions (531)

Duncan Smith

Question:

531. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of reviews of disability allowance carried out in 2023 and 2024 to date; the number of people who had their payment removed in each year due to exceeding the income disregard; the number of additional disability allowance recipients who qualified in each year; the total spent on disability allowance in 2023 and 2024 to date; the projected out-turn for 2024 and proposed budget for 2025; the number of recipients projected for next year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43100/24]

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Written answers

Minister for Social Protection

Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, means test and Habitual Residency conditions.

The total number of reviews of DA carried out in 2023 was 10,399 and 8,608 have been carried out to date in 2024.

There were 208 DA payments stopped in 2023 due to means exceeding the statutory limit and 378 to date in 2024.

In 2023, there were 12,884 claims awarded for Disability Allowance and 12,474 awarded to the end of August 2024.

The total expenditure on DA in 2023 was €2.17 billion and to date in 2024 is €1.7 billion.

The projected outturn for 2024 is €2.4 billion and proposed budget for 2025 is also €2.4 billion

In 2025, the projected number of DA recipients is 166,550.

I hope this information is useful for the Deputy.