Half of all disability allowance applications last year turned down

Almost half of all applications for disability allowance last year were turned down, according to new figures.

Information from the Department of Social Protection shows 30,614 Disability Allowance claims were decided last year, of which 14,800 were initially refused.

There were also a large percentage of cases which, after appeal, were granted. Last year, 5,220 appeals were decided by the Social Welfare Appeals Office and 3,384 were allowed.

The department said that of the almost 15,000 refusals: “A number of applications recorded as disallowed subsequently may have been awarded following a review or following a successful appeal. Where both the disallowance and subsequent award occurred in 2015, these cases are recorded in both the disallowed and awarded column.”

The department also said that 66 disability allowance payments were terminated last year after the recipient underwent a medical review.

The chief executive of the Disability Federation of Ireland John Dolan said the high rate of initial refusal for the allowance suggested “playing hardball — the sense that people have to sing for their supper”.

“It is pointing in the direction that there is something wrong, that the initial decision is not properly calibrated,” he said.

Mr Dolan said the bigger issue for the federation was the disability allowance, even when it was granted, did not take into account the extraordinary but everyday costs of having a disability.

With the general election looming, the federation has launched its ‘Disable Inequality’ campaign at www.disableinequality.ie, and has urged people with a disability and their families to make inequality an election issue.

Mr Dolan said that a key aspect of the federation campaign would be how the growing number of people with a disability going through primary and post-primary education is not matched by movement on to third level and particularly the drop in employment levels among people with a disability, regardless of their standard of education.

He said that there was now a range of supports at primary and secondary level but that often that level of support can “fall off a cliff” when it comes to translating that education into jobs.

He also argued that investing in education only for it to fail to result in careers was “no value for money” overall and that there were huge gaps in the level of support needed by adults with a disability.