Thursday 04 September 2008

Irish Examiner People with an intellectual disability are still being ripped off over long-stay health charges in residential institutions, Inclusion Ireland has warned. The support group also claimed that other clients are sometimes not allowed to assume responsibility for their financial affairs from other family members, who see a disability allowance as another form of family income.   The warnings came as Inclusion Ireland prepared to launch a book today that will provide information for people with an intellectual disability on how to make decisions regarding their finances. Making Decisions about Money was written by Sarah Lennon of Inclusion Ireland and was influenced by a number of workshops held with clients.   The workshops also provided anecdotal evidence of people with intellectual disabilities being overcharged for services in residential settings and issues regarding the misuse of their finances.

"Inclusion Ireland have heard of cases whereby people in residential settings are charged the long stay health charges in an unfair way," said Ms Lennon. "The charges are supposed to be levied at a maximum of €90 or €120, depending on the level of nursing care, but each resident is supposed to be given an independent financial assessment. We have heard of cases where these maximum charges are levied as standard without any financial assessment.

"There is also the fact that residential units where there is no nursing care may solicit a private contribution towards the running of the unit. There is no legislation covering these contributions and this leaves the door open for abuse and could result in duress towards vulnerable people."

Ms. Lennon said there was evidence some people were not allowed to retain control of their disability allowance payments, which was instead controlled by other family members, which in turn created barriers to the development of the person with the disability.

"There can be cases where families see the disability allowance as a family income, when in fact the payment is the person's own property," she said. There also needed to be a clearer test for deciding whether a person has the capacity to manage his or her money.

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