Entitlements

Disability Allowance

Means tested, paying up to £197.80 per week depending on your assessed weekly means.

Increases: Increases for a qualified adult £131.30.

Respite Care Grant

Currently annual rate of £1700 for each person you are caring for, this is payable from the first Thursday in June.

Carers Benefit

Not means tested, where the career is caring for one person, the weekly rate is £214.70, where they are caring for two people the rate is £322.10.

Careers Benefit is a payment made to insured persons in Ireland who leave the workforce to care for a person in need of fulltime care and attention, you can get this payment for 24 months for each person been cared for.

Carers Allowance

Careers Allowance is a payment to people living in Ireland who are looking after someone else who is in need of support because of age, physical or learning disability or illness.

If you are providing care for more than one person you may be entitled to 50% of the maximum rate of the allowance.

You qualify for free household benefits package free esb units, TV licence, telephone rental, travel pass.

From 27th September 2007, if you are already receiving certain payments from the department of social welfare you may be entitled to a half rate careers allowance.

• Application form for Carer’s Allowance

Incapacited Child Allowance

This tax credit can be claims by the parents of a child with a permanent disability. To apply, write to your tax office with the following information Childs name, date of birth, brief description of the nature of the incapacity.

It would be advisable if you wish to claim for previous years. Send copies of the latest reports.

Refund of Value Added Tax

A refund of VAT may be claims for certain aids used by people with disabilities to assit them with independent living and working eg computers, Printers, Laminators. Claim forms available from:

VAT (Unregistered) Repayments Section,
Revenue,
Kilrush Road,
Ennis,
Co Clare.
Telephone no:1890 202 033

Exemptions/Refunds for Disabled Passengers/Drivers

Severely disabled persons who use a specially adapted motor vehicle as passengers and who meet certain criteria are entitled to exemptions from motor tax and refund/exemption from vehicle registration tax:

• Refund of VAT on vehicle and adaptations
• Refund of duty paid on fuel (up to 600 gallons a year)

Contact local health board for a primary certificate and than to:

Disabled Drivers Section,
Central Drivers Section,
Central Repayments Office,
Office of the Revenue Commissioners,
Coolshanagh,
Co.Monaghan.

Adaptation/Extension of house to cater for disabled person

In Ireland, housing grants are available for disables people in situations where changes need to be made to a home to make it suitable for the person with a physical or intellectual disability or a mentally ill person. Grant assistance is available for changes made to your home, some parents have used this for a classroom or therapy room in their houses, grants are paid through the local authority, in recent months the department of environment have commenced a review of the scheme given the large number of applications some authorities have suspended the scheme.

Medical Card

There is a list of illnesses which automatically qualify for a medical card, this was drawn up a number of years ago and autism is not on that list but lots of children and there families have a medical card, the best thing to do is apply if you’re refused appeal.

Domiciliary Care Allowance

Currently the payment is £309.00 there is no restriction on the number of children you can claim for, you will automatically qualify for the annual respite grant.

This a monthly payment to parents with children under 18 with a disability living at home it is paid once the disability is diagonised.There is a means test but it is just the Childs means not the parents.

You apply for the allowance to be payable from the date of diagnosis, once the application is received you will be given a date to go to local health centre with an interview with the doctor, some parents keep a diary of a typical day with their child, the additional assistance the child needs with basic tasks.

• Application form for Domiciliary Care Allowance

Home Tuition Grant

The home tuition grant was originally meant to provide a teacher in the home who because of disability or illness was unable to attend school, children with autism can now avail of it for extra tuition after school hours or if the child is not attending school. Children as young as two and half have received this grant in the past; the current allocation is 15 hours until three years old then 20 hours.

Contact: Special Education Section @0902/74621 or 01/8734700.

Home Based July Provision

If you have a child who has been diagnosed with autism, you can apply for the home based July provision, provided that the school in which the child attends is not providing tuition for the month of July.

Contact: Special Education Section @ 0902/74621 or 01/8734700.

Home Support

All families with a family member with a disability living with them and who are known to one of the teams are entitled to an assessment for the service, the assessment is carried out by the social worker on the team, this entails discussion around what services exist for the family and within the extended family and wider community, what particular care needs the individual with a disability has and how home support might alleviate the situation. For some families home support is provided to give parents a break to spend time with other children in the family or to allow a parent to follow a particular programme by freeing them up to work with the disability.

You can apply to your local health nurse for home support or local health centre.

Disability Allowance

This is paid to people between 18 and 66 who have a disability this is an allowance that is means tested, however it is the means of the person only taken into consideration.

Free Travel

Is available to recipients of a disability Allowance or a Careers Allowance.