We can look at the other allowances. An adult dependant gets £25.59 but here is is £33. We were behind these rates only a few years ago but we are now ahead. I would like it to be clear that we are making considerable progress. The payments here for the elderly and retired are also better.
In regard to social insurance payments, the priority rates recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare have already been achieved in the case of the maternity allowance scheme for women in employment, the occupational injuries benefit scheme, the old age contributory and retirement, invalidity and widows contributory pension schemes and deserted wives benefit. The disability benefit, unemployment benefit and general maternity allowances schemes are the only social insurance payments which are not at the commission's priority rates. However, a pay-related supplement of up to £17.40 can be paid in addition, following this Bill, and that will bring the overall payment above the commission's priority rate. This is something Deputies are inclined to forget when they talk about the rates of disability benefit and say it is lower now that we have brought the basic unemployment rate to £55 as against £50. However, the £50 is normally associated with a pay-related benefit increase of up to £17.40 and the average there would be about £12. The whole idea of the commission was to do away with pay-related benefit and to bring the basic levels up to these other levels we mentioned. That is what we are doing. As those benefits rise the pay-related benefit is coming back to meet them. We are following the line set by the commission to bring the basic levels up so that everybody gets that basic level irrespective of the pay-related element.
With the extension of the provisions of the Maternity Protection of Employees Act, 1981, to cover women who are working for more than eight hours a week, many of the women who now qualify for the general maternity scheme will become entitled to the maternity allowance for women, the minimum rate for which is £76 per week.
Of approximately 383,000 persons in receipt of the various social insurance payments, over 286 or almost 75 per cent are receiving payments at a higher level than the commission's priority rates which we are to reach by 1993. I can assure Deputies that we will continue to make progress and be ahead of the target set.
In relation to social assistance payments, the priority rates recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare have been achieved in the case of all long term social assistance payments, that is, long term unemployment assistance, pre-retirement allowance, old age and blind pensions, widows non-contributory pensions, deserted wives allowance, prisoners wives allowance, single woman's allowance and lone parents allowance. The rates for short term social assistance payments are £4.60 below the priority rates recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare. The Government have, however, given a firm commitment to increase these rates to the commission's priority rates by 1993. This year has seen a major step in this direction with an increase of 11 per cent in the weekly rate of short term social assistance payments, short term unemployment assistance, the carer's allowance and supplementary welfare allowance.
Of the approximate 350,000 people in receipt of various social insurance payments, over 287,200, or 82 per cent, receive payment at a higher level than the commission's priority rates. For example, of a total of approximately 733,000 social welfare recipients, over 573,200, or 78 per cent, receive payments at a higher level than the commission's priority rates. The House will see that we now have the 78 per cent, or the 80 per cent, above the priority rates and it is clear that we will more than achieve the 1993 target.
In relation to the child dependant allowances, Deputies have been advancing different proposals. Broadly, we are following the lines recommended by the commission which constituted the broadest overall consideration. The streamlining of the child dependant increases, which commenced in July 1988, has been continued. The number of different rates for child dependants under the various social insurance, occupational injuries and social assistance schemes is being further reduced from five to three. Since July 1988 the number of different rates of child dependant allowances for all social welfare schemes has been reduced from 36 to three. There are now only one-twelfth of the number of different rates of child dependant increases compared with three years ago. In addition, the difference between the highest and lowest rates of child dependant payments has been significantly reduced. Prior to July 1988 the difference between the highest and lowest levels of payment was £8.20 per week. The minimum child dependant allowance, introduced in July 1989, is also being increased by over 9 per cent to a minimum of £12 per week. I might make the point that the rates for child dependant allowances here are now considerably higher than those obtaining in the United Kingdom. It will be seen that we have more than met the recommendations of the commission with which I think Deputies should be happy.
Deputy Garland pointed out that these rates are now beginning to cause some difficulty with higher numbers of members of families which, with £12 per week for each child, adds considerably to the basic payments. In order to counteract that we have increased the family income supplement and the child-related tax allowances.
The overall question of the tax and benefit dilemma raised by Deputy Garland was referred to in the report of the Commission on Social Welfare, at paragraph 8.5 which had this to say:
If the present system were replaced, for example, with a universal social dividend at the unemployment benefit rate (£39.50) for all adults, with no extra payments for any category, plus £10 per child, per week, for all children, up to age 19 years, then total dividend expenditure would be about £5.1 billions...
So it will clearly be seen that we are not talking about those levels at all now, we are talking about much higher rates. At that stage the rate for unemployment assistance was £39.50 with a dependant rate much lower also. The present rate of long term unemployment assistance is £55 with a £33 adult dependant allowance. It will be seen that we are talking about a huge volume of money creating enormous difficulties for taxpayers in meeting such commitments. Of course these matters are being considered, and will continue to be mainly by relating the tax element to the social welfare one, in order to arrive at the best possible combination.
Deputy Stagg used the figure of one million people living below the poverty line. This is thrown out as a cliché repeatedly. I should say that our payments go to approximately one million people. In almost all cases we provide payments above the priority rates recommended by the commission. I should make clear that a large proportion of our payments are paid to people with other incomes, which is a totally different question in that people do not know what other incomes those people may have. Therefore, it is not correct to say that there are one million people in that group. There are people who are poor, others who are very poor. I recognise that fact——
