A SCHEME allowing people with disabilities to return to work while retaining part of their social welfare payment was announced yesterday.
The partial capacity benefit scheme will allow people who are currently in receipt of an invalidity pension or who have been drawing illness benefit for more than six months, to enter employment while continuing to receive some support from the State.
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, who announced the scheme, said it would allow people to return to work, either in an area they worked in previously or in a new field where their disability was not a factor.
“The scheme is completely voluntary, plus if they have illness or disability issues that crop up again and they have to leave work they can return to their former status in terms of the illness benefit or in terms of the disability pension,” Ms Burton explained.
“They’re assessed as to the level of their disability and depending on that assessment they retain whatever the proportion is of their personal disability payment and they retain in full any payments that were made for a spouse or for children,” she added.
The department expects that, based on the numbers of people with disabilities choosing to work under current exemptions, there will be between 2,000 and 3,000 people who may avail of the scheme in the short term, but that this figure may increase.
Those who opt for the scheme will undergo an assessment by a department medical assessor before being able to participate.
Those assessed as having a severe restriction on their capacity to work will have their invalidity pension or illness benefit reduced by about a quarter; those assessed as having a moderate restriction will receive half their current allowance; while no restriction will be applied to those who are profoundly restricted in their capacity to work.
All participants will retain any qualified adult and child dependant payments which they are currently in receipt of.
Meanwhile, the Minister also announced the consolidation of 24 programmes for people with disabilities nationwide into one EmployAbility Service, which she said would give the service a consistent nationwide identity.
The service offers a range of supports, including workplace adaptation grants and wage subsidies to employers and on-site job coaches and mentors to people with disability.