DADA Disabled Artists, Disabled Academics

Pre Budget Submission July 14, 2022

An impossible Choice.

Disabled Artists Forced to Choose:

Art OR Disability?

“I was born with Cerebral Palsy and Hydrocephalus, which means that I have relied on a plastic shunt in my head to keep me alive for my whole life, and will continue to do so until the day I die.  Last year, I graduated with a degree in creative writing.  Poetry has always seemed to be the only area in my life where I haven’t had to fight to be seen as half as good as my peers.

However, I have never been able to enter a cash-prize writing competition or apply for a bursary, even the ones specifically set up for disabled artists because:

1.  I typically can’t afford the entry fees

2.  I can’t afford to win

A sudden influx of money, however small, could trigger a dehumanising means test that could see me to lose the right to a life of any kind of quality.”  - DADA Disabled Artist

“The closest I have ever come to a "safe and respectful workplace" is 

my own  bedroom.”  - DADA Disabled Artist

CONTENTS summary

    1. PROBLEM: Current Social Protection Regulations attached to Disability Supports do not support Disabled Self-Employment.

        1. THE COST OF DISABILITY MAKES SELF-EMPLOYMENT UNAFFORDABLE

        2. ARTS + DISABILITY = PRECARITY SQUARED

        3. MEDICAL CARD

        4. STATE SUPPORT FOR NON-DISABLED EMPLOYERS TO HIRE DISABLED EMPLOYEES BUT NOT FOR SELF-EMPLOYED DISABLED

        5. UNSUITABILITY OF EXISTING GRANTS FOR THE ARTS SECTOR

        6. ADMINISTRATIVE ANOMALIES INCONSISTENT WITH SELF-EMPLOYMENT

   2.  SOLUTION: Create a Disabled Self-Employment Support Scheme

  • DISABLED SELF-EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT SCHEME

  • MEDICAL CARD

  • REMOVE ANOMALIES THAT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST CERTAIN DISABILITIES

  • RECONCILE ADMINISTRATIVE ANOMALIES

3.  PROBLEM: Disabled Artists Penalised for Excellence

4.  SOLUTION: Disabled Artists Celebrated for Excellence

5.  THE VISION, The Future, Integrated.

1.  PROBLEM:  Current Social Protection Regulations attached to Disability Supports do not support Disabled Self-EmploymenT.  

This particularly affects disabled artists, precluding us from growing, developing and contributing.  This lack of support is in contravention of Article 30, UNCRPD. It also inhibits State Bodies from implementing Public Sector Duty, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Human Rights Policies. This also upholds a lack of representation of disabled people in the Arts, Entrepreneurship and across all self-employment sectors.

  1. THE COST OF DISABILITY MAKES SELF-EMPLOYMENT UNAFFORDABLE

The INDECON report showed that the additional annual cost of living with a disability is between 8,7000-12,300E a year.  Yet, the Blind Pension/Disability Allowance/Invalidity Pension is 208E a week, which is reduced with earnings assessed as over 140E a week.  At these rates, having a disability is the basis for poverty and it’s impossible and unsustainable to begin, build or grow as a disabled artist. 

    • The Cost and unmitigated impact of our disabilities prices us out of being a self-employed artist. Once supports are lost, a self-employed disabled person is solely responsible for shouldering the whole impact and cost of their disability, 8,7000-12,300E. Meeting the cost and mitigating the impact of our disabilities is a prerequisite to being able to work and it is impossible and unaffordable.

2.  ARTS + DISABILITY = PRECARITY SQUARED

The means testing and reductions which apply as soon as a disabled artist earns over 140E a week do not take the following mitigating factors into account: the precaritiy squared of having a disability and working in the Arts. 

  1. Disability Precarity Our earning power is reduced by our illnesses and disabilities. (If a visually impaired jazz singer has to cancel her gig due to a flare up hearing loss, the income is lost - but medical bills are higher. Judged by the industry as unreliable, this frequently has the unintended consequence of the disabled singer not being hired again, resulting in further loss of income. Or, due to illness, a disabled artist may miss competing for a round of Arts Council funding-resulting in the potential loss of a years worth of income.

  2. Arts Sector Precarity The Arts sector is infamous and feared for its precarity. Even non-disabled people struggle to make a living in the arts. Irrespective of talent, income is sporadic, precarious and dependent on being competitively healthy. In the arts sector and in entrepreneurship, income is only won through competition, in an open market with non-disabled people. The open market does not care if you have a disability. It would be discrimination to race disabled athletes against non-disabled - yet in the most obstacled arts-race, disabled self-employed are entered into competition with non-disabled and their glasses and wheelchairs removed.

  3. Disabled artists cannot benefit from Arts Sector Specific reliefs which recognise and soften its jagged precarity e.g. artist tax exemption, Basic income for Artists, commissions, prizes etc Most disabled artists won’t earn enough to benefit from these reliefs or won’t risk it as it would see a loss of disability supports.

3. MEDICAL CARD

If a disabled artist loses their medical card they can lose their wheelchair.  The precarity of their income combined with pre-existing health conditions makes health insurance unaffordable.

4.  STATE SUPPORT FOR NON-DISABLED EMPLOYERS TO HIRE DISABLED EMPLOYEES BUT NOT FOR SELF-EMPLOYED DISABLED

The State offers many supports to non-disabled employers to hire disabled people and heavily invests much in training of employers to hire disabled people. (Eg Employability) However no such supports exist to support disabled artists or entrepreneurs sustainably enter and maintain self-employment. Many financial incentives exist for non-disabled people to start small businesses. This Wage Subsidy Scheme supports non-disabled employers hire disabled employees, meet the additional costs and mitigative the impact of the disability, however this scheme is not open to a self-employed disabled person to meet the costs of employing themselves. 

5.  UNSUITABILITY OF EXISTING GRANTS FOR THE ARTS SECTOR

  • The Workplace Adaptation Grant is not suitable for a disabled artist when our place of work and the nature of our work changes constantly. Also the value of this grant is insufficient.

  • Grants and supports via the Local Enterprise Office, INTREO, like the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance which support non-disabled entrepreneurs do not support disabled people as availing of them results in a loss of disability supports.

6.  ADMINISTRATIVE ANOMALIES INCONSISTENT WITH SELF-EMPLOYMENT

  1. The time-frame of disability social welfare audits do not coincide with Revenue’s annual assessment, and the criteria of assessment also differ. This brings about inaccurate assessment, resulting in an unfair adjustment of supports.

  2. Disabled self-employed must also shoulder the double administrative load of reporting separately to many different departments and their different assessment criteria. There is an emotional, mental and physical impact to this load and the stress attached to the uncertainty of the timing and fallouts of audits. Taken in the round, this acts as discriminatory, as relative to non-disabled self employed, these conditions reduce a disabled persons working time and energy, frequently causing flare ups of their illnesses and therefore reducing their income.

  3. Mandatory reporting of income changes within 3 months is not consistent with being self-employed.

DEPARTMENTS RESPONSIBLE: 

Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth 

Department of Social Protection

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Department of Health


2.  SOLUTION: Create a Disabled Self-Employment Support Schem

  1. DISABLED SELF-EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT SCHEME

Create a scheme for disabled artists which removes income/earnings limits and means testing and allows us to keep our core payment (Blind Pension/ Disability Allowance/ Invalidity Pension) to meet the cost and mitigate the impact of our disabilities on our earning power.  This would facilitate sustainable self-employment for disabled artists and disabled entrepreneurs.  This would be a significant step towards levelling the playing field with our non-disabled peers. It would enable us to develop and build a sustainable our arts practice — and pay tax.

2.  MEDICAL CARD

Ensure the retention of the medical card based on medical needs instead of low incomes thresholds:  Make "Discretionary Medical Cards" the rule for disabled artists/disabled entrepreneurs. 

3. REMOVE ANOMALIES THAT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST CERTAIN DISABILITIES

Remove anomalies within disability supports which cause discrimination between disabilities in Self Employment.

        • Blind Pension is taxable. Disability Allowance is not. Because of this, blind and visually impaired artists are required to register as self-employed with much additional incomes as low as €6,000. They are therefore, also more likely to have to pay tax. This is not the case for those on Disability Allowance, because it is an allowance. DADA is asking for this discriminative anomaly to be removed.

        • Recipients on Blind Pension are permitted savings of up to €20,000 while those on Disability Allowance are permitted 50,000E. DADA is asking that the savings threshold for recipients of Blind Pension be increased to the same level as Disability Allowance.

4. RECONCILE ADMINISTRATIVE ANOMALIES 

Small changes in regulations that reconcile administrative anomalies between Social Welfare and Dept of Enterprise, Trade and Employment cost nothing but would achieve administrative congruence for the self employed people with disabilities. 

        • Change regulations to support self employment in practice by ceasing Social Protection reviews which are out of synch with Revenue’s annual pay and file. Replace with that self-employed disabled people simply send their annual revenue assessment to the Blind Pension/Disability Allowance/Invalidity Pension.

        • This would remove the double administrative load and inaccurate assessment resulting in unfair loss of supports and its destructive impact on mental, physical and emotional health of disabled people trying to grow.

        • Remove the mandatory 3 month change of income reporting to Blind Pension/Disability Allowance for self-employed people and replace with annual return of revenue assessment. This would be consistent with supporting self-employment

DEPARTMENTS RESPONSIBLE: 

Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth 

Department of Social Protection

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Department of Health

3.  PROBLEM: DISABLED ARTISTS PENALISED FOR EXCELLENCE

Awards, bursaries, commissions and grants from funding bodies like the Arts Council are classified as income which is fully assessed as means by Social Protection. This triggers an immediate loss/reduction of disability supports irrespective of whether or not the artist is self-employed.   Not every disabled artist will/can choose to be self-employed but this classification makes it unsafe for all disabled artists or arts workers to apply for funded opportunities to develop their practice.

4.  SOLUTION: DISABLED ARTISTS CELEBRATED FOR EXCELLENCE

“If you can see it, you can be it.” Celebrate the success and excellence of disabled artists and inspire developing disabled artists and disabled children.

    • Add a provision in Social Protection legislation to exclude Income from grants, awards, commissions and bursaries from means assessment and allow a disabled artist grow and aspire to achieve excellence and on achieving it, allow them develop and contribute further.

OR 

    • Apply an income disregard to allow disabled artists keep their supports when they win awards. This could be modelled on Catherine’s Law which allows disabled academics accept a scholarship to support their PHD studies. This similarly allow disabled artists develop their practice to a high and celebrated standard.

DEPARTMENTS RESPONSIBLE: 

Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth 

Department of Social Protection

5.  THE VISION, THE FUTURE, INTEGRATED

People who have a visual impairment are not vision impaired.  People with disabilities have abilities, talent, insight, intelligence and limitless creativity.  We have to, to live in a non-disabled world.  DADA has a vision.  Disabled artists, creative, entrepreneurial disabled people want to contribute and we can contribute - provided we are supported to do so.  Many of us must overcome daily discriminatory responses and exclusion because of our disabilities to find, own, and express our voices and talents.  It is hard enough to make a living as a disabled person.  It’s even harder as an artist, as self-employed.  Our earning power will always be undermined by demands of our disability. 

But what if we had secure support to grow?  

Imagine a world in which people with disabilities were supported, not thwarted, to reach their full potential as contributing artists and creatives to Ireland’s society. Imagine the colour, the energy; the joyful, powerful, visionary transformation that could bring about in arts and in our society. 

Imagine the revolution of compassion, acceptance and creativity. We serve a lifelong (not always willing) apprenticeship to these masters.  Imagine how our freedom to contribute and participate might bring more kindness and diversity to our society.

DADA has a vision where artists and creatives with disabilities thrive and enrich our society through the diversity of our experiences, our creativity and our wisdom.  Remove these penalising, suffocating barriers and support us to contribute to society and the economy.