Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 1 Feb 2000

Vol. 513 No. 3

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

Noel Ahern

Question:

248 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs when the review of the free schemes will be completed and published; if the extension of free schemes to retired public servants and semi-State employees is being considered; when the £30 over social welfare rule was established; the annual cost if this was increased to £100 per week; if the Department of Finance or other sponsoring Departments make any contribution to granting free schemes to their ex-employees; and if he will make a statement on extending the scheme by raising or abolishing the £30 disregard rule. [2400/00]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

A fundamental review of the free schemes of this Department is being carried out to assess whether the objectives of these schemes are being achieved in the most efficient and effective manner. This includes an examination of the qualifying conditions for the schemes, the target groups and the scope for alternative policy arrangements. The issue of extending the free schemes to retired public servants is being addressed as part of the review process.

The review of the free schemes is being carried out by an official of my Department on secondment, as a visiting research fellow at the Policy Institute, Trinity College, Dublin. It is expected that the research conducted will be formally published by the Policy Institute in the "Trinity Studies in Public Policy" series in March 2000.

Since July 1996 the free schemes are available to low income pensioners who are not in receipt of a social welfare type pension and who satisfy a means test. The weekly means income limit fixed for this purpose is the maximum personal rate of old age contributory pension, currently £89 for a recipient aged 66 to 79 years, and £94 for a recipient aged 80 years or over, plus £30, plus any increases for a qualified adult, dependent children, living alone, as appropriate. The make-up of this income limit means that it increases automatically each year on foot of the budget increases in pension rates. The annual cost of increasing the means disregard on the free schemes means test to £100 per week is not available.

Budget 2000 made provision for the extension of the free schemes to all persons aged 75 years and over, regardless of their income and household composition. In addition, the free electricity allowance and free television licence schemes will be extended to all carers in receipt of the carer's allowance and to carers who are caring for people in receipt of constant attendance or prescribed relatives allowance giving this group access to all the free schemes. Both of these measures will be implemented from October 2000.

Government Departments do not subsidise the free schemes for ex-employees.

Liam Lawlor

Question:

249 Mr. Lawlor asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if the living alone allowance for elderly persons will be increased; and if the heating allowance will be increased in view of the sharp increase in the price of heating oil (details supplied). [2661/00]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

The living alone allowance is an additional payment, of £6 per week, to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare type payments and who reside alone.

In line with this Government's commitment to a strong social welfare pension based on social insurance, and the achievement of an old age non-contributory pension rate of £100 per week by 2002, I have concentrated on improving the personal pension rates of our older people. I believe this to be the most effective and equitable way of ensuring that their position is improved.

In this regard, significant progress has been made towards achieving this objective since this Government took up office. For instance, the recent budget provides for an increase of £7 per week in personal pension rates – well above the average inflation rate. Taken together with the improvements in the 1998 and 1999 budgets, this means that all pensions have been increased by £18 per week since this Government came into office.

As part of the process of aligning the tax and social welfare changes from the start of April by 2001, the Government has brought forward the implementation date of the budget increases by six weeks from mid-June to the beginning of May.

The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are on long-term social welfare or health board payments and who are unable to provide for their own heating needs. A payment of £5 per week, £8 per week in smokeless zones, is paid to eligible households for 26 weeks from mid-October to mid-April.

Any increase in the rate of payment would have to be considered in the light of the modest increase overall in domestic fuel prices since the current rate of the fuel allowance was set, taking into account the substantial increases in primary payment rates over the same period.

To increase the current £5 per week rate by £1 per week for the whole of the fuel season would cost approximately £7.2 million per annum and to increase the rate from £5 to £20 would cost an additional £108 million per annum.

The national and smokeless fuel schemes were reviewed in 1998 as part of my Department's series of programme evaluations. The review group took the view that improvements in the national fuel scheme cannot be looked at in isolation from the improvements in the primary weekly payment rates. With regard to the payment rate, the group concluded that the present rates of payment should remain unchanged if improvements in primary payment rates fully compensated recipients for all price inflation, including fuel price inflation. In that regard, substantial increases in all the social welfare primary payments of either £3 or £6 per week were paid from June 1999 with further increases of either £4 or £7 which will come into effect from May 2000.

Fuel allowances are not the sole mechanism through which assistance is provided to people with heating needs. There is a facility available through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme to assist people in certain circumstances who have special heating needs. An application for a heating supplement may be made by contacting the community welfare officer at the local health centre.