Written Answers. - CMRS Document Findings.
Pat Rabbitte
Question:
25
Mr. Rabbitte
asked the
Minister for Social Welfare
if his attention has been drawn to the document produced by the Conference of Major Religious Superiors, Towards Full Citizenship for All, which found that the income of social welfare recipients had grown by a smaller percentage than any of the other groups surveyed over the period between 1986 and 1993; his response to the report; the steps, if any, he intends to take to address the issues raised; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Liz McManus
Question:
56
Ms McManus
asked the
Minister for Social Welfare
his response to the document, Towards Full Citizenship for All, published by the Conference of Major Religious Superiors, which found that, despite various national economic programmes since the mid-1980s, the number of people living below the poverty line increased, the gap between the poor and the better off widened and the number of people barred from doing meaningful work increased; his views on the findings of the CMRS; his response to the proposals made by the CMRS, including that for a basic income guarantee for all; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 25 and 56 together.
The Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Ireland, in their submission Towards Full Citizenship for All, published in late 1993 make a number of recommendations in the social welfare and related areas, including a more flexible approach to employment, increased rates of social welfare payments, and integration of the tax and social welfare systems. All of these are areas where the Government is already taking action.
In relation to rates of payment, during my time as Minister for Social Welfare I have ensured that social welfare payments have more than kept pace with inflation. All long term rates now exceed the Commission on Social Welfare's priority rates, and from next month short term rates will be brought up to at least that level. The measures announced in this year's budget were a continuation of the policy of above-inflation increases in social welfare rates. From July, all weekly payments will be increased by 3 per cent. A 6 per cent increase is being given to all on the lowest rates, to bring them up to the priority rate recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare. A further increase is being given to unemployment benefit and disability benefit claimants; this gives an overall increase of 10 per cent in the personal rates of these payments.
To give some examples of the level of increases: the personal rate of long term unemployment assistance will be 61 per cent higher than in 1987, a real increase of 33 per cent. The increase in the short term rate is 73 per cent, or 43 per cent in real terms. A person on long term unemployment assistance with a dependent spouse and three dependent children will now receive £137.20.
I have introduced a number of initiatives allowing unemployed people to take up a range of options in the areas of education, training, part-time work and voluntary work. In addition, the school-leavers jobs scheme which I introduced gives work experience to school leavers who would otherwise be unemployed, and the back to work allowance scheme allows long term unemployed people and lone parents to retain a proportion of their payments including secondary benefits while seeking out opportunities in indigenous sectors or self-employment or work with voluntary and community groups.
The CMRS put forward proposals for a scheme whereby unemployed people could be employed voluntarily by public bodies or voluntary organisations to undertake work of a public or social nature. In his budget speech, the Minister for Finance announced that £35.3 million was being made available this year through the Department of Enterprise and Employment for a new community employment programme, and that, as part of this programme, there would be a pilot scheme to test the concept put forward by the CMRS. The pilot scheme has now been launched and will involve 1,000 of the 40,000 places available under the community employment programme. The CMRS have undertaken to keep me informed of the progress of this scheme.
The Programme for Government contains a commitment to examine the closer integration of the tax and social welfare systems. The Minister of State at my Department, Deputy Joan Burton, has been given special responsibility in this area and in 1993 established an expert working group on the integration of the tax and social welfare systems. The group will be examining a number of possible strategies for closer co-ordination and/or integration of the two systems. The group issued an interim report in December and is expected to submit its final report before the end of this year.
