AONTÚ’S mayoral candidate for this Friday’s inaugural election has said that the discrepancy in the numbers of people in Limerick who had their disability allowance granted on appeal over the past 10 years is concerning and questions have to be asked as to the decision-making process.
Sarah Beasley, also running in the City North area, said that figures released to her party following a parliamentary question to the Minister for Social Protection show that of the 2,653 appeals in Limerick, 1,845 were granted following an initial refusal.
“This is a huge number, and it begs the question why the people weren’t successful in the first place,” Ms Beasley said.
“People with disabilities truly struggle to get by and I find it incredible that such a sizeable cohort were initially told they wouldn’t quality for the disability allowance only for that decision to be turned over on appeal.”
She is now calling for a review of the whole process for eligibility.
“I believe there must be something amiss in the system. I am also calling for the disclosure of the full numbers who were turned down as obviously we know only a small portion of those would have bothered appealing the decision. Given the high rate of successful appeals, everyone should be encouraged to appeal a negative decision,” she concluded.
