Autism care allowance claim rejected
Its secretary general, Niamh O’Donoghue, came under pressure from TDs to explain why the payment is being removed from families caring for children on the autistic spectrum or with intellectual disabilities.
At the Public Accounts Committee, she was asked by Fine Gael TD for Wicklow, Simon Harris, if there was a “conspiracy” to impose stricter criteria because the department was “under pressure to make savings”.
Ms O’Donoghue said she recognised that there had been “a huge amount of public discontent” over reviews of the payment.
“A lot of people think the department has an agenda, we don’t,” she said.
“I can categorically assure you there is no informal, formal of otherwise instruction to cut back on expenditure in this area.”
Committee chairman John McGuinness said he was “shocked” and “taken aback” by the number of “genuine cases” presenting to TDs where families with autistic children had the payment removed.
The allowance of €309.50 a month is paid to the carers of severely disabled children under 16 years. It had been administered by the HSE up until 2009, but since moving to the Department of Social Protection, a number of recipients caring for autistic children have had their payments reviewed or removed.
Ms O’Donoghue said there is a difference between the expectation of the payment, and the legislation her department is obliged to operate under.
But Mr McGuinness criticised the department’s handling of the appeals which, he said, resulted in TDs spending a huge amount of their time on the issue.
“These parents have no where to turn to. That’s why they are turning to deputies in their constituency offices and we get accused then of clientelism. But they can’t engage with the system in a successful way that will bring them an outcome. And it’s heartbreaking to watch them.”
