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Number of people receiving disability allowance grew by nearly 6,000 last year

The number of people who receive disability allowance grew by nearly 6,000 last year. The Disabil...
Eoghan Murphy
Eoghan Murphy

08.00 21 Jul 2020


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Number of people receiving dis...

Number of people receiving disability allowance grew by nearly 6,000 last year

Eoghan Murphy
Eoghan Murphy

08.00 21 Jul 2020


Share this article


The number of people who receive disability allowance grew by nearly 6,000 last year.

The Disability Federation of Ireland claims people who receive the payment are in poverty.

Disability allowance is a means-tested social welfare payment that’s capped at €203 a week.

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The number of people who receive the allowance has grown by nearly 10% over the past two years - from just under 134,000 in 2017, to nearly 141,000 in 2018, to almost 147,000 last year.

In 2019, almost a quarter of the recipients were in Dublin, while nearly 18,000 were in Cork.

Just over 8,000 were in Galway, and there were marginally fewer in Limerick.

Leitrim had the least, at just over 1,000.

John Dolan, chief executive of the Disability Federation of Ireland, said most people with disabilities have huge financial problems.

He explained: "Of the people who are of working age, the great majority of those are living in poverty.

"The risk of poverty rate for people with disabilities in Ireland was around 37% in 2018 - that's about 10% higher than the EU average."

Over €1.7 billion was paid out in disability allowance payments last year, which was €119 million more than in 2018.

Main image: File photo. Picture by: RollingNews.ie

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