Disability payments for those who really need it

I am ‘outing’ Ireland’s other Secret Millionaires. I call them Ireland’s other Secret Millionaires, because if they had a million euro on deposit in the bank, the income it would generate, is what these individuals get annually from the taxpayers.

They may be your friends, neighbours, or acquaintances, but you would not realise that they are an ‘invalid’, and that they have an invalidity pension. They live a normal life, do the shopping, school and college run, holidays, gardening, etc, but because a government employee deemed that they have a ‘disability’, they now have an unchallengeable pension for the rest of their life.

I have no problem with what I call ‘real’ permanent life-changing disabilities, eg, physical, sight, hearing, etc, but it is the aching back, sore hand, not fully functioning finger or toe, stress, anxiety, etc, that most of us who are working, have to work through to pay our bills. If these were being paid by a commercial insurance company, under the terms of an insurance policy, the majority of them would not be paid anything, as they would not have been deemed incapable of work.

Everyone’s claim needs to be reviewed again, before taking any more medical cards off sick children, and retired people. If people no longer have a ‘disability’, checked under possibly more rigorous testing, then wean them off the benefits, and with appropriate help, get them back to work.

Paul O’Shea

South Terrace

Cork