If we’re serious about ending poverty, address the Cost of Disability
October 17 2025, 10:13am
This International Day for the Eradication of Poverty comes at a time when Ireland must face the real cost of disability for people, and the poverty and inequality it creates.
This years’ theme is (17 October) is “Ending social and institutional maltreatment by ensuring respect and effective support for families.” Yet in Ireland, one in five people who cannot work due to disability live in consistent poverty. That means people who cannot work due to disability are almost four times more likely to live in consistent poverty than the general population. And those people are not feeling supported.
The extra Costs of Disability impacts the daily lives of all disabled people, whether they are employed or not. It is felt most acutely by people on low incomes and those relying on social protection measures.
Budgets tell you what a country values. This year’s Budget tells disabled people to wait, yet again, for fairness. There are no promised measures to address the cost of disability, which will be felt acutely next years as people will lose the once-off measures received over the last three years.
Record spending but not for everyone
The government has hailed record spending on specialist disability services: €619 million, a hugely welcome increase of 20%. This is essential for maintaining existing levels of supports in the community, and provides for additional day supports and respite to children’s assessments, home support and personal assistance.
Not every disabled person requires specialist supports, they require a small amount of State assistance to have a life equal to others. The majority access mainstream services and supports and will not benefit from these service investments announced in Budget 2026. Instead, many people will feel the loss of the one-off Cost of Disability and other supports that were removed this year, leaving many poorer and more insecure.
Supports cut, costs rising
For three Budgets in a row, the government acknowledged that living with a disability brings unavoidable extra costs such as heating a home, transport costs, additional medication, assistive technology, aids and appliances, and the time and energy it takes to navigate inaccessible systems. The Disability Support Grant and other once-off payments were temporary but crucial in bridging the income gap many disabled people live with. The government had been clear that the once-off measures would be removed this year, with the promise of targeted measures. Disabled people were not included in any package of targeted measures. While the government says it plans to deliver on its promise of a permanent Cost of Disability payment for 2027, that leaves an entire year of higher costs and less support for people already struggling.
This is not abstract. It’s lived experience.
Disability activist Michael Meere told us, “I am receiving a disability payment and the household benefit package. The money from both is inadequate. I have to attend a food bank weekly, and apart from it being demoralising, it's a necessity to survive.”
At a recent DFI workshop to mark International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, disabled people highlighted the precarity and uncertainty of disability poverty. They described small steps forward and sudden slides back. A lucky break might help for a few months until a new bill or benefit cut wipes it out.
The real Cost of Disability
Research by Indecon shows that people with disabilities in Ireland face significant extra living costs, averaging between €9,482 and €11,734 every year. And those costs don’t disappear if you’re working. They simply make every euro stretch less far, for heat, electricity, equipment, transport, or accessible housing.
People described transport as a major stumbling block. As one participant said, “It costs money to be spontaneous.” A coffee with friends means weighing the price of a taxi against the electricity bill for powering a wheelchair or broadband for home tech that provides safety and independence.
People on low and middle incomes face cruel cliff-edges when they try to take on additional work or increase their salaries through promotion. A disabled person told us they reluctantly turned down a full-time job because it would have been “financially irresponsible.” As a small wage increase could mean losing the medical card, and increased rent in their social housing, or reduction in the disability payment that makes work possible in the first place. People on Disability Allowance can earn up to €165 a week without losing any of their social protection payment. After that their supports are assessed. This €165 amount hasn’t increased in the past three budgets, despite record inflation.
And then there are those who cannot work because of their disability but are excluded from supports because their partner earns above a certain threshold. Disabled people often have to choose between living with a partner and retaining their Disability Allowance - the household means-test undermines their individual rights. These systems create barriers that prevent disabled people from living and contributing on equal terms with others. They entrench financial dependence and directly contradict Ireland’s obligations under international rights conventions.
Disabled people can’t wait
For three years, the government accepted that disability brings extra costs and offered some financial support. Removing those supports this year, while delaying a permanent solution, is more than a financial cut. It’s a message that the daily realities of disabled people can wait. Many are despairing and angry to see things moving backwards rather than forwards. To take away a support people relied on to survive, without replacing it with something permanent is particularly cruel.
The government has promised a permanent Cost of Disability payment in 2027. But disabled people cannot afford to wait another year for recognition of the daily costs they face.
There are practical options available now, through targeted or supplementary supports, or other short-term measures, that could help bridge the gap in 2026. Acting on these would show real commitment, not just intent.
As one disabled person stated, “I’m not looking to be a millionaire. I’m looking for security, home, heat, food, family, and not to fight for every basic thing.”
On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Ireland should look honestly at who is being left behind.
Budgets are policy choices. The government can continue to speak about equality, or it can fund it. Disabled people in Ireland cannot, and should not, be asked to wait another year for fairness.
Post your story to socials and tag your local TD and ask them to #CountTheCostOfDisability.