*Clare Leader Forum Chairperson, Padraic Hayes. Photograph: Tom Micks
CLARE LEADER FORUM is calling on the Government to provide a once-off emergency cost of disability payment.
Disability brings with an extra cost of between €455 and €555 per week, the Government’s own Indecon Cost of Disability Report from 2021 detailed.
Over the past two winters, disabled people received a total of €1,400 in once-off payments. Citing an increase in energy, food and transport costs, disability activists are pushing for the a once-off emergency cost of disability payment for this winter while longer-term measures are developed.
A severe financial strain is placing an extra burden on disabled people, Clare Leader Forum have stressed. They have suggested that for those in receipt of social welfare payments, the emergency payment could be delivered through the social protection system. For disabled people in employment, who incur substantial additional costs, it could be provided as a tax credit. The additional cost of disability arises from Impairment-related needs, employment status. Not addressing this or paying it to people in receipt of disability allowance risks keeping people in poverty and forcing people to remain long-term unemployed.
On Saturday next (February 28th), a number of Clare activists will gather at the Garden of Remembrance, Dublin, at 13:00 to highlight the cost of living crisis and its disproportionate impact on disabled people.
Chairperson of Clare Leader Forum, Padraic Hayes stated, “The cost of disability is real, it is measured, and it is felt every single week by disabled people. Government has the evidence. An emergency Cost of Disability payment would provide immediate relief while the longer-term scheme is being finalised. Disabled people should not have to travel to Dublin to make the case for protection that is already justified by the Government’s own data”.
Hayes pointed out that the Leader Forum has made repeated representation to Clare politicians and continues to urge Government to act as a matter of urgency and introduce a once-off emergency Cost of Disability payment.
