Disability is not a one-off - too many disabled people live with a permanent cost of living crisis

While the cost of living has increased for everyone, disabled people experience ongoing, additional and escalating costs.

It has been reported that the upcoming Budget will contain “one-off” payments to support people with the cost of living for the third consecutive year. In previous years, this included a one-off ‘Cost of Disability’ payment. In Budget 2023, when announcing this  payment, Minister of Finance Michael McGrath said, “it is important that we acknowledge that persons living with a disability face additional costs.”

While these payments help during the extreme inflationary cycle, they do not address the fundamental problem. Increases in core payments in recent years have not kept pace with inflation. That means that many people can buy less with their social protection payment in 2024 than they could four years ago. The government has relied on the one-off payments to bridge this gap, but when the payments stop the gap will remain.

And that can be even more challenging for people with disabilities. Imagine if the basics in life cost you more than your neighbours – your healthcare, transportation, heating or housing costs, for example.

The Cost of Disability in Ireland report, published in 2021, established that disabled people across Ireland live with many extra costs. These costs relate to mobility, transport, communications, care and assistance services, equipment, aids and appliances, and medicine, amongst others. The report gave an annual estimate of these costs – updating this to factor in recent inflation, people with disabilities live with extra costs in the range of €10,397- €15,177.

And yet the basic annual income currently provided by Disability Allowance is only €12,064. In some cases, this amount doesn’t even cover a person’s disability-related costs, let alone all the other everyday living expenses like rent, food, phone, internet and others.

Dympna Minaguchi, a Mullingar resident who has a visual impairment, explains why people with disabilities need a financial injection in the upcoming budget: “From a disability point of view, we would all, bar none, appreciate a financial boost in Budget 2025. Two years ago, the government introduced a once of payment of €500 for people with disabilities. Most people expected this would be an annual thing, but last year it was brought down to €400, even though by then inflation had already taken over. And the cost of living had already dramatically increased, so the reduction was a big disappointment to me. What needs to be taken into account is the cost of disability – the cost of specialised taxis, transport, getting to and from appointments, medication and medical appointments. So, a financial injection would be helpful to people with disabilities.” she said.

Disability is not a one-off. People with disabilities live with these extra costs throughout their lives. The Indecon report documents, for example, extra annual expenses in the range of €938 for medicines, €3,621 for care and assistance services, and €3,206 for mobility, transport and communication. The report also identified that disabled people had a range of unaffordable extra costs, estimated to be €2,706 a year in 2020.

€500 is not enough to address extra costs of disability that could be 20-30 times that amount. This is a daily reality for many people who have a life-long disability. It is also felt acutely by people who acquire a disability - who often may no longer be able to work and have to adjust to financial precarity. The lack of sufficient financial support to address the cost of disability pushes many people in Ireland into poverty.

It should come as no surprise then that last year 44.7%, or 1 in 2 people, who are unable to work due to disability or illness, lived in enforced deprivation. This means they are unable to afford essentials like heating, replacing old clothes, or socialising with friends or family.

Recent research adds further evidence. An ESRI report published earlier this month shows that 24.4% of households with a disability (394,921 people) experience deprivation, compared to 12.6% of households without.

This is a national shame. Ireland is a wealthy country, and there is popular support to change this. The 2021 Citizen’s Assembly voted in favour of ensuring that disabled people have an income that supports them to live a life equal to others. They recommended that all social protection payments should be “at a level that lifts people above the poverty line, prevents deprivation and supports an adequate standard of lliving”. The Assembly also recommended that people with disabilities “be actively supported and resourced to live independently” and “have access
to person-centred financial supports to serve their individual needs.”

Poverty is not inevitable – different policy choices can be made. We can no longer accept a social protection system that condemns one in two people who are unable to work for health reasons to live in deprivation.

We need to bring in a permanent Cost of Disability payment that acknowledges the many extra costs that disabled people and their families live with. This year, disability organisations are united in their call for Budget 2025 to bring in an ongoing €50 weekly payment as a first step to supporting people with disabilities with the extra costs. This is something that disabled citizens and the disability movement have been seeking for a long time. Social protection payments need to live up to the hopes and values of our citizens, to ensure that all people in Ireland can live above the poverty line and have an adequate standard of living.