asked the Minister for Social Welfare the instructions, if any, which have been issued to community welfare officers that supplementary welfare allowance should not be paid to persons whose social welfare has been cut because they declined to participate in Jobsearch programmes, even where this decision is under appeal; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that persons in this category have been refused supplementary welfare allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
9.
No instructions on the lines mentioned by the Deputy have been issued by my Department. The basic criterion for the award of supplementary welfare allowance is that an applicant has not got sufficient means to meet his or her needs. An applicant for supplementary welfare allowance may also be required to register for employment, unless there are specific circumstances which would justify the waiving of this requirement.
Community welfare officers must be satisfied, in determining the entitlement of any applicant, including applicants whose claims for unemployment payments may have been disallowed, that he satisfies the means test and other conditions for receipt of supplementary welfare allowance. A person who is not satisfied with the decision on his application may appeal against it to his local health board.
In the normal course of their work, community welfare officers regularly deal with applications for supplementary welfare allowance from persons who have been refused payments of unemployment benefit or assistance for failure to meet the statutory qualifying conditions. This has been a feature of the scheme since its inception. I am aware that since the advent of the Jobsearch programme, a number of persons have had their unemployment payments reviewed and some have been terminated for reasons associated with their non-participation in the Jobsearch programme.
I am also aware that a small number of persons whose unemployment payments were so terminated have contacted the Department recently to say that they had also been refused supplementary welfare allowance. These persons were advised that they should discuss their situation in detail again with the staff member dealing with their claims in the employment exchanges. They were also advised of the appeals procedures.
If the Deputy has particular cases in mind where he considers that supplementary welfare allowance has been unfairly refused, I will be happy to have them looked into.
10.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will amend the regulations so that elderly persons who are entitled to free electricity allowance, should be permitted to carry over unused units from one accounting period to the next; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The free electricity scheme meets the cost of the normal standing charge on the ESB's domestic consumer tariff and allows up to 200 and 300 free electricity units per two-monthly billing period in summer and winter respectively. The basic purpose of the scheme is to help those with actual costs incurred and it was never the intention of the scheme to provide for crediting in respect of costs not yet incurred.
There are no proposals to revise the scheme along the lines advocated by the Deputy as it is considered that the scheme in its present format meets the objectives for which it was designed. Some 172,000 persons benefit under the existing scheme at an annual cost of £21.79 million to the Exchequer.
12.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the average unemployment assistance payment to single persons living at home; the lowest amounts paid to single persons on unemployment assistance living at home; if he will set a minimum level of unemployment assistance below which no person's entitlements would fall; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Entitlement to unemployment assistance is dependent on means and in any particular case the rate payable is the appropriate maximum rate less the weekly means assessed, including in the case of single persons living at home the value of board and lodgings. The lowest rate would, therefore, in individual cases depend on the claimant's means. Statistics are not kept in such a way as would enable the average rate of assistance paid to single persons living at home to be determined.
The setting of a minimum level of assistance payment, irrespective of means, would not be an efficient use of resources in present circumstances of financial constraint. The purpose of the means assessment is to achieve a degree of equity as between applicants living in relatively better off circumstances and those whose circumstances are not so good. The criteria used in the assessment are designed to ensure that each case is decided fairly having regard to the standard of living of the household and the circumstances of the applicant.
The recent budget provided for an increase of 3 per cent in all weekly payments from next month at an extra cost of some £30 million this year. Deputies will remember that the previous Government did not propose to give a general increase until November. The 3 per cent increase now being paid next month will maintain the real level of payments of over 700,000 social welfare recipients and it will also maintain the significant real increases in the level of payments which have been achieved over the last decade. In that period there has been an increase of over 44 per cent in real terms in payments to the long term unemployed.