‘Penalised for having a job’: Blind tech worker ineligible for Budget 2027 disability payment

Wheelchair user Brian Dalton pays ‘€5,000-€10,000 extra’ per year on things including assistive technology, transport and increased energy costs

Tue Oct 27 2026 - 06:00 • 3 MIN READ

Brian Dalton, a senior accessibility engineer with a financial services company, earns a “good” salary but faces high extra costs due to being disabled.

It is “very disheartening”, he says, that because he is working he is not eligible for a new payment to help meet the costs of disability.

Blind and a wheelchair user, Dalton’s additional costs include assistive technology, the purchase and upkeep of his wheelchair, transport, and increased energy costs as he feels the cold more than mobile people.

He was “hopeful” when the Government said it would introduce a cost-of-disability payment, in recognition of the extra items people like him need. When the details of new cost-of-disability support grant were announced in Budget 2027, however, he was “really disappointed”.

“It was the first time I felt really penalised for having a job. We [disabled people] all have these extra costs because we are disabled but some of us are excluded from support just because we have a job.”

The new payment, worth €500 a year in a lump-sum, will be available to disabled people in receipt of long-term disability welfare payments including the disability allowance, blind pension, invalidity pension and partial capacity benefit. An estimated 283,000 people will receive the payment in early 2027.

It will not be available, however, to disabled workers earning above €27,830 per year.

“I have a mortgage, bills, two children – one [of whom] will be starting secondary school next year. My wife, who is partially blind, works part-time,” says Dalton.

His wife also faces additional costs, including powerful magnifiers.

“The costs can go up and down. Some years I will need to buy a new wheelchair, or update technology. I would say on average I spend between €5,000 and €10,000 a year extra.”

An Indecon report, commissioned by the Department of Social Protection and published in 2021, found that people with disabilities spent between €8,700 and €12,300 extra on items directly related to being disabled.

“I know friends in the UK who get the PIP [personal independence payment] and they get a weekly payment, and they are working, to help with costs of living. I was always very envious of that. It’s assessed against their disability needs,” he says. “And still here we get no help. It’s very disheartening.”

Dalton is a member of a new campaign group, Working Disabled People, which is due to meet Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary next month.

It wants the cost-of-disability support grant extended to all disabled adults, or for the provision of a tax credit worth €500 a year for working disabled people not currently eligible for the payment.

“It is about the money, of course, but it’s also about parity with other disabled people, and that the costs we face because we are disabled are recognised too.”

A spokeswoman for the department said the introduction of the support grant for the first time was an “important first step”.

“There will be further consultation with disabled people and their advocates in relation to the development of the payment for future years,” she said.

“The Minister has received a range of requests from people, including disabled workers, looking to meet and seeking to be involved in the codesign process.”

“These are all being considered as the Department develops the process through which further engagement will be carried out with disabled people, including disabled workers, and their representatives.”

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