I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £113,318,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1981, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Social Welfare, for certain services administered by that Office, for payments to the Social Insurance Fund, and for sundry grants.
This Supplementary Estimate is required to meet increased expenditure arising from increases in the rates of social welfare payments from October 1981, the payment of a double week to recipients of certain social welfare pensions and allowances in December 1981, increases in administration costs and an upward trend in the numbers claiming under the various schemes. The increases arise on all three sections of the Social Welfare Vote for the current year, namely, administration, social insurance and social assistance.
The original Estimate, which was passed by the House in July last, was for the sum of £476,635,000. A Supplementary Estimate for £106,420,000 was also passed by the House in July last. The reason for taking the Supplementary Estimate at that time was the exceptional cost of increasing long-term payments by 25 per cent and short-term payments by 20 per cent from April 1981 and children's allowances by an average 30 per cent from July 1981. It was apparent that there would not have been sufficient voted moneys available to the Department to meet these costs during the period that the House was in recess. The sum of £106,420,000 was the estimated cost of the increases in rates of payment and other improvements in social welfare services provided in the 1981 budget. The present Estimate is for a sum of £113,318,000, which brings total Exchequer spending on the services administered by my Department in the current year to £696,373,000.
Under the section for administration — subheads A to C — the net additional expenditure amounts to £4,907,000. This derives from increases amounting to £4,440,000 on subhead A.1 in respect of salaries, wages and allowances; £100,000 on subhead B.1 in respect of increased travelling and incidental expenses; £265,000 on subhead B.2 in respect of increased computerisation and £130,000 on subhead C in respect of an increase in the cost of telephone services. These increases are offset by a small saving of £28,000 on subhead A.2 in respect of consultancy services.
The additional expenditure on social insurance — subheads E and F — amounts to £70,720,000 which is the result of an increase of £70,644,000 on subhead E and an increase of £76,000 on subhead F.
The extra amount required for social assistance — subheads G to L — is £39,453,000. The overall increase on the three sections comes to £115,080,000. There is, however, an increase of £1,762,000 in the receipts from appropriations-in-aid — subhead M — which serves to reduce the net additional requirement to £113,318,000.
The sum of £70,644,000 required for subhead E is the additional amount payable by the Exchequer to the Social Insurance Fund to meet the deficit on the working of the fund. The cost of the increases of 5 per cent to beneficiaries over pension age and 3 per cent to others from October 1981, which were announced in the July budget, is £6,091,000, while the cost of the extra week's payment in December to recipients of contributory pensions and allowances is £7,294,000. There is also an increased expenditure of £57,259,000 arising mainly from an upward trend in the numbers claiming insurance benefits during the year. The main constituents of this sum are £29,980,000 in respect of unemployment benefit; £15,800,000 in respect of pay-related benefit; £6,440,000 in respect of old age contributory pensions; £4,050,000 in respect of disability, benefit; £1,364,000 in respect of widows' and orphans' contributory pensions; and £1,600,000 in respect of invalidity pensions. The total of these increases is £59,234,000, but variations from the original estimates in the remaining insurance schemes had the effect of reducing this figure by £1,975,000. On the income side the estimate of £477,500,000 in receipts from contributions payable by employers and employees is expected to be realised by the end of the current year.
As Deputies are no doubt aware, final draws must be made from the Exchequer before the end of each year on an estimated basis because actual figures of expenditure and income are not available until after the close of the year. Any overdraw or underdraw resulting will be reflected in the amount payable by the Exchequer to the Social Insurance Fund in the following year.
The additional expenditure required in the Supplementary Estimate for social assistance amounts to £39,453,000. This expenditure arises from the increases in rates of payment from October 1981 at a cost of £3,531,000; the cost of the extra week's payment in December to recipients of certain pensions and allowances amounting to £4,384,000 and a net sum of £31,538,000 to meet increases of £12,240,000 on unemployment assistance; £7,600,000 on children's allowances; £2,630,000 on old age non-contributory pensions; £2,754,000 on supplementary welfare allowances; £1,850,000 on free travel and £1,335,000 on unmarried mothers' allowances as well as increases under various other schemes totalling £3,183,000. These increases are offset by a small saving of £54,000 on prisoners' wives allowances.
The surplus of £1,762,000 in appropriations-in-aid arises mainly from the increase in the amount of the administration costs of the social insurance and the occupational injuries schemes which have to be refunded from the Social Insurance Fund and the Occupational Injuries Fund.
As I have already stated, this Supplementary Estimate is for an additional sum of £113,318,000 which is required to meet the cost of the increases in rates of payment from October 1981, the cost of the double week's payment in December and to meet other excesses on the services administered by my Department which have arisen since the original Estimates were prepared. Deputies may wish to note that overall expenditure on social insurance and social assistance services will amount to more than £1,206 million in the current year, which is an increase of £309 million or 34.4 per cent on 1980. Expenditure in a full year at current rates will amount to some £1,330 million.
If Deputies require any further information regarding the matters affecting this Supplementary Estimate I shall be pleased to furnish it.