Domiciliary Care Allowance: Private Members Motion tabled.

Press Release | 8th May 2012

Deputy Catherine Murphy today joined with her Technical Group colleagues to table a Private Member’s motion calling on the Government to urgently address the significant problems being encountered by parents who seek the Domiciliary Care Allowance on behalf of their children. The motion seeks to restore the efficient and fair administration of the Allowance and calls on Minister Joan Burton to engage with families affected immediately to put together a workable solution.

Speaking today outside the Dáil, Deputy Murphy condemned the manner in which the administration of the Allowance has become “utterly chaotic” since the transfer of responsibility to Minister Joan Burton’s department from the HSE in 2009.

“Many parents have approached me to explain their extraordinary experience in applying for the DCA. In many cases, ensuring your child qualifies for the Allowance is a very costly process, sometimes into the thousands, without any guarantee of success. Indeed, the refusal rate has shot up since 2009, whilst appeals have been known to take many months.

“In addition to this, on-going Departmental reviews of the Allowance – which are ultimately decided by Department administrators with no medical professional qualifications – have in many cases resulted in an extremely vulnerable family losing their eligibility, despite the fact that many of the children concerned have lifelong conditions which do not improve over time. While I appreciate that reviews must of course take place, the current method seems unfair in the extreme.

“It’s for these reasons that my Technical Group colleagues and I have moved to table this motion today and tomorrow. The Domiciliary Care Allowance has been in existence since 1973 – many families rely heavily on it as an essential aid in helping them meet the cost of the extra care their children require. Many of these families were struggling to begin with; the heavy-handed approach by the Department has resulted in simply another cut for them to deal with. I’d call on Minister Burton to immediately engage with these families to try and resolve the issue urgently.”

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Posted by admin on May 8, 2012. Filed under Dáil Technical Group,disAbility & Special Needs,homepage,In the Dáil,National Issues,Parliamentary Questions,Social Protection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry