Wage Subsidy Scheme: €7.50 to €10 an hour towards the wages of a disabled employee

What it pays

The rate depends on how many employees you have on the scheme.

The subsidy is paid for each hour worked, from 15 hours a week up to 39. At €7.50 that is €112.50 a week for 15 hours, €225 for 30 hours and €292.50 for 39 hours.

You pay the employee the full wage. The subsidy comes to you afterwards.

The higher rates apply automatically once you have 7 or more active employees on the scheme. If the number drops, so does the rate.

An employer with 25 or more employees on the scheme can also apply for €30,000 a year towards an Employment Assistance Officer.

The rates went up in April 2026. The base rate rose from €6.30 to €7.50.

You can work out the subsidy for the hours you have in mind.

Which employers qualify

• You are in the private sector, the community, voluntary and not-for-profit sector, or the commercial semi-state sector.
• You employ the person directly. Agencies and contractors cannot claim.
• You are tax compliant and can give a tax clearance access number.
• You offer a contract of at least six months, for at least 15 hours a week.
• You pay the going rate for the job, which must be at least the minimum wage, on the same conditions as your other staff.
• You are not getting any other State support towards the cost of employing the same person.

Public sector bodies cannot apply.

You cannot claim it for yourself. The guidelines rule out self-employed people, and directors of a limited company who work in it as paid employees. A spouse or close relative can only be covered if the job is insurable at PRSI Class A and the Department approves it.

Which employees qualify

• Aged 18 or over. The subsidy can be paid until they are 66, or up to 70 if they have put off drawing their pension.
• They have a disability or health condition that limits their ability to work, so that the tasks or role have to be significantly adapted.
• They can work at least 15 hours a week.
• They are a new employee, or have been in the job for less than 12 months.

An existing employee can also qualify if they acquired a disability in the last 12 months, or if a degenerative or progressive condition has reduced their ability to work in that time. So can someone who returns to work on Partial Capacity Benefit after acquiring a disability or health condition in the last 12 months, or after moving to it from Invalidity Pension.

No extra medical assessment is needed if the employee gets Blind Pension, Partial Capacity Benefit or Disablement Benefit awarded at 20% or more for life. The same goes for Disability Allowance, which has an earnings disregard for people who work.

Anyone else needs a recent specialist's report or doctor's letter. Their doctor must also fill in the Confidential Medical and Functional Capacity Report.

The scheme must not be used as a trial period to see whether someone suits the job.

How to apply, step by step

1. Contact your local Intreo Centre. You and the employee must agree that the job's tasks or role need to be significantly adapted.
2. The employee meets an Employment Services Officer and is registered with the Department as a person with a disability.
3. Fill in the forms. You complete the Employer Application Form (WSS1ER). The employee completes WSS1EE, which also asks for your business and workplace details, and you both sign it. The Work Adaptation Report (WSS2) is completed by you with the employee.
4. Add your tax clearance access number, a bank mandate if the Department does not have your account details, and the medical report if one is needed.
5. Attach a signed contract of employment showing the weekly hours, the gross wage, the job description, the length of the contract and the leave entitlements.
6. Send everything to your Intreo Centre or to the Employment Services Officer dealing with the case. If it is approved, you and the employee each get a letter confirming the start date and the contracted hours.

The Work Adaptation Report carries the case. It is two pages. You list the main tasks of the job and, beside each one, how it will be adapted. You certify that the role needs significant adaptation, and the employee signs to agree.

All the forms are on the Wage Subsidy Scheme page on gov.ie.

How you are paid

Once approved, you use Welfare Partners, the Department's online service for employers. Every four weeks it issues a Wage Subsidy Request for each workplace. You enter the hours each employee worked and the gross wages paid, and submit it.

You have 12 weeks from the date a request is issued to submit it. After that the subsidy may not be paid.

Paid annual leave and public holidays count as hours worked. Unpaid leave does not. If you keep paying an employee who is out sick, the subsidy continues for up to seven weeks a year.

If you plan to change the contract, the job description or the hours, ask the Department in writing at least four weeks beforehand.

Reviews, and what goes wrong

Every claim is reviewed once a year. The officer looks again at how much the job is adapted, and can stop the subsidy if fewer or no significant adaptations are needed.

You cannot combine it with the grant for hiring someone who has been out of work for the same job.

Letting staff go in order to claim the subsidy for a replacement counts as displacement. The Department can reclaim the money and bar you from new applications for 12 months.

If you are refused, you can write within 21 days asking for another officer to review the decision. There is no appeal to the Social Welfare Appeals Office.

In May 2026, 1,568 employers had 2,621 employees on the scheme. Nine in ten of those employers had one or two.

The same employee and employer can also apply for funding for equipment, workplace changes and in-work support.

Common questions

Keep reading

• filling in WSS1ER, WSS1EE and WSS2, form by form