What is it? What are the criteria? How do you qualify?
The disability allowance is a weekly allowance that is paid to people with a disability. This type of payment is made available to people with disabilities from the age of 16 years of age.
What are the rules?
In order to qualify for this type of payment allowance, you must meet the following criteria
· Have an injury, disease, or physical or mental disability that has continued or is expected to continue past a certain length of time.
· Must be substantially restricted as a result of their disability in undertaking work that would be suitable for a person of their age (able-bodied person).
· Must be aged between 16 and 66 - when you reach 66 you no longer qualify but instead can be assessed for a state pension.
· Must satisfy the means-testing criteria.
· Must satisfy the habitual residence condition.
What is Residential Care: If you are receiving the disability allowance and are admitted to a hospital or a residential care facility, you will continue to receive your payment as long as you still meet the qualifying conditions. If you were not in receipt of this payment before living in residential care you are able to qualify for this allowance once you meet the criteria and conditions to qualify.
What does it mean to be Means-tested: As the DA is a means-tested payment it is a necessary step in qualifying for this payment? In order to qualify the total income amount is assessed to ensure that they are below a certain amount. The main items that are looked at include:
· Cash income of your spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant may have.
· Capital - the value of savings, investments, shares, or any property you may own (other than your current house)
· Any Maintenance paid to you.
· Living with your parents - Your parents’ income is not taken into account when you are assessed for Disability Allowance.
Please note that while the criteria, rules, and conditions are essential in this process there may be in some cases that may require further steps or conditions in order to qualify upon my experience I would really recommend having a chat with your OT or Care worker to see if there is anything further that they can do or who to contact or what the best port of action would be to make sure that yourself or the person that you are assisting with this is made fully aware of what things are and are not available to them in terms of entitlements, grants, special needs assistants and other allowances.
You can access an application form for the Disability Allowance from the Department of Social Protection.
For more information on this topic and to find out more I would suggest checking out the citizen information website
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