Vol. 401 No. 1
16 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Social Welfare if, in view of the fact that the cost of maintaining a teenage child is considerably greater than that for an infant, he will introduce a tiered rate of child dependant's allowance with higher rates for older children; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
58 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he accepts the recommendation in the Commission on Social Welfare report that the child dependant allowance should be payable to all long-term recipients until the child reaches 21 years where he or she is in full-time education; and the steps he is taking to implement this proposal.
59 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he accepts the recommendation in the Commission on Social Welfare report that the child dependant allowance should be rationalised and the rate set for £10 per week by 1985 prices; and the steps he is taking to implement this proposal.
60 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he accepts the recommendation in the Commission on Social Welfare report that child allowances should be improved and differentiated according to the age of children and that there should be higher payments for older children and large families; and the steps he is taking to implement this proposal.
61 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will raise the qualifying age for child benefit from 16 to 18 for child dependants who are not in full-time education or employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 58 to 61, inclusive, together.
I am very much aware of the financial needs of families with children and I have made significant progress in recent years in increasing the level of social welfare payment to such families.
Following on the achievements of the 1989 budget, improvements costing £216 million in a full year have been made in this year's budget. These include an increase in the minimum child dependant payment from £10 to £11, the payment of child dependant increases until age 20 to recipients of long-term payments where the child continues in full-time education, a 5 per cent increase in the rate of child benefit and the introduction of a footwear and clothing allowance of up to £40 for families on social welfare. The tax exemption limits for low income families have been increased and a child-related allowance of £300 per child has been included. Improvements costing £1 million are being made to the family income supplement scheme. Deputies will recall that one of the main improvements last year was the introduction of a widowers' and deserted husbands' assistance scheme for men with children. This is being built on this year by the introduction of a lone parent's scheme.
The focus of recent budgets has been very much on the family, as the following examples of increases in this year's budget indicate: a couple with two children on long-term unemployment assistance will receive £105 per week, an increase of £8, while a couple with four children will receive an increase of £10 bringing their payment to £127; a couple with four children on short-term unemployment assistance or supplementary welfare allowance will receive £120 per week, which is an increase of £11.10, while a couple with six children will get an increase of £13.10, and a total payment of £142; a lone parent under 66 with three children on an assistance payment will receive an additional £5.20 per week, giving a total payment of £93.50; a widow or deserted wife on a contributory payment with four children will receive a payment of £116 which is an increase of £5.10 per week.
In addition to these substantial increases in payments for families with children, considerable progress has been made in recent budgets in streamlining the child dependant allowance payments — the number of these has been reduced from 36 to six. I would like to assure the House that the Government will, as resources permit, continue to review and improve the position of families and thereby build on our progress to date, and this will include the examination of age-related child dependant payments, and of improvements in child benefit. As Deputies will appreciate, any such proposals would be costly and would have to be considered in a budgetary context. It is the Government's intention to extend child dependant allowances to all long-term recipients in respect of children up to age 21 who remain in full-time education. The improvements in the last two budgets in this area have been steps in this direction.
The Minister's reply indicates quite clearly that he is going to do nothing about bringing in a tiered rate. In the absence of a minimum income for all, would the Minister not give a commitment at this late stage to introduce a tiered system knowing that to maintain teenagers is far more costly than maintaining babies, so that teenagers between 15 and 18 would be entitled to 55 per cent of the adult rate and those up to the age of 20 would be entitled to 70 per cent of the adult rate and this should be the direction that the Department's inspectors should take?
The Deputy should give credit to the fact that the Government introduced a clothing and footwear allowance this year which is age-related and a payment of £25 is made to those in primary school and a payment of up to £40 is made to those at secondary school. This is an age-related payment and it is only fair that credit be given where credit is due. In so far as other developments are concerned, these are matters for future budgets.
That disposes of questions for today.
