Vol. 403 No. 6
56 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Social Welfare the cost or estimated cost to the Exchequer in a full year of increasing the maximum weekly rate of social welfare payment to £63.80 per week for recipients of lone parents allowance.
The annual cost of increasing the maximum weekly rate for the lone parent's allowance scheme to £63.80 would be approximately £27.50 million.
57 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Social Welfare the cost or estimated cost to the Exchequer in a full year of increasing child dependant allowances by 5 per cent with a minimum full rate payment of £12 per week.
The cost of increasing child dependant allowances by 5 per cent with a minimum full-rate payment of £12 per week would be approximately £16.2 million in a full year, based on existing child dependant numbers and rates of payment.
58 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Social Welfare the cost or estimated cost to the Exchequer in a full year of increasing the child benefit rate for the fourth child to £22.90 per month.
The cost of increasing the child benefit rate for the fourth child from £15.80 per month to £22.90 per month would be approximately £7.20 million in a full year.
59 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Social Welfare the cost or estimated cost to the Exchequer in a full year of additional payments to long term social welfare dependants equivalent to the weekly value of child dependant allowances, paid on a quarterly basis, as recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare.
The cost of additional quarterly payments to long term social welfare recipients equivalent to the weekly value of the child dependant allowances would be approximately £14 million in a full year.
60 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Social Welfare the cost or estimated cost to the Exchequer of calculating family income supplement on net, rather than gross, income.
The estimated cost of basing entitlement to family income supplement on net rather than gross income would be £7 million in a full year. This assumes no change in the income limits.
61 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason payment of unemployment assistance to a person whose spouse is in receipt of a social welfare pension is capped at a level equivalent to the adult dependant allowance on a pension, particularly in view of the commitment to equality of treatment.
Implementation of Directive 79/7/EEC meant that for the first time a married woman living with her husband could qualify for unemployment assistance on the same basis as other claimants. This necessitated certain changes in the means assessment provisions and these were provided for in the Social Welfare (No. 2) Act, 1985.
