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Back in July, AsIAm released our recommendations for Budget 2024. With the budget being officially announced tomorrow, 10th October, we wanted to show our main recommendations again, to see how the official Budget compares, and to illustrate just how important it is that Autism is kept in focus in Budget 2024.
The most critical part of our pre-Budget submission is that the government implement the 109 recommendations of The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism Final Report.
If you want to read the report an explainer along with a link to the full report is available here.
AsIAm recommends that the government invest €15 million into developing and implementing a national Autism Innovation Strategy. The Social Democrats have allocated this funding in their alternative Budget.
We recommend and increase of €25 a week for Disability Allowance, Carers Allowance, and Domiciliary Care Allowance.
AsIAm recommends the introduction of a Cost of Disability Payment of €20 per week.
AsIAm recommends €6 million be allocated for creating a “one stop shop” for Autism.
For the full AsIAm pre-budget submission please visit: https://asiam.ie/prebudget2024/
This budget is critical for the Autism community. For too long there has been a strong connection between Autism and poverty, and the help available to Autistic people and their families has been lacking. This has only been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis, housing crisis, and consistent underinvestment in Autism services.
Research suggests that there are additional costs of living with a disability is between €9,500 and €11,700 annually, in the case of Autism this rises to as high as €28,464.89, due to loss of earnings involved in meeting the needs of the Autistic person. Autistic people and their families need more supports with many going families going into debt to try to cover these additional costs. This in addition to 80% of Autistic people being unemployed or underemployed leads to a situation where many families are trapped.
It is our hope that by implementing an Autism Innovation Strategy and offering more financial supports, Autistic people can get the same chance as everyone else to live as equal members of society.
AsIAm will be providing live commentary tomorrow for Budget 2024 throughout the day, along with a Budget 2024 explainer in the coming days.
