Vol. 452 No. 5
5 Miss M. Wallace asked the Minister for Social Welfare the position regarding the improvements implemented in October 1994 for widowers; the communication his Department has made with each widower to date; the uptake to date; and if he will consider backdating the improvements in the interest of equality. [8307/95]
In the Social Welfare Act, 1994, widow's contributory pension was replaced by survivor's pension which gives widows and widowers the same contributory pension entitlement under the same conditions. The provisions came into effect on 28 October 1994.
My Department undertook an extensive advertising campaign to highlight the scheme. Advertising was conducted in the national press, radio and television and a special FREEPHONE service operated during June 1994 to deal with inquiries from widowers about the new scheme.
Information leaflets on the new scheme were made available through the Department's local offices, post offices and community information centres.
The advance publicity was aimed at ensuring that existing widowers were made aware of the new contributory pension available to them to encourage them to apply early so that as many new claims as possible were decided and ready for payment by the October 1994 commencement date. A further advertising campaign is currently being considered to reach widowers who may not be aware of their new pension entitlement.
Over 5,170 widowers now receive a survivors pension from my Department. On average, 80 new claims from widowers are received each week. Widowers also benefit under other schemes administered by my Department. Those who are not qualified for survivor's pension and who have dependent children may be entitled to receive lone parent's allowance which is subject to a means test. Others may qualify for retirement pension or old age contributory pension on the basis of their social insurance contributions when they reach age 65 and 66.
The introduction of contributory pension entitlement for widowers in 1994 addressed a significant gap in the social welfare provision for men. The introduction of the new arrangements without retrospection followed normal practice for developments in our social welfare provisions and I have no proposals to apply the provisions from an earlier date.
There is no doubt that the scheme introduced in 1994 was an excellent one in the interests of equality for widowers. It was unfortunate that over the years widowers did not qualify for a pension similar to widows. I am concerned that while the uptake following the advertisement was encouraging, according to CSO statistics there are 38,000 widowers in the country with only 6,500 having applied for the widower's pension. The Minister needs to readvertise the scheme to inform widowers whose spouses have died during the year and to inform widowers who did not understand the scheme introduced last year. A widow's pension scheme has been in operation for many years but it is only in the past 12 months a widower's pension was introduced. I would like to see a new advertising campaign to get information to the widowers who qualify but who have not applied.
My other concern relates to backdating payments. The widowers scheme should have been introduced long ago and we should consider a planned approach to backdating payments to these people on the same basis as the equal payments to women under the social welfare system.
The Department will advertise in the most effective way it can, bearing in mind the cost of advertising. On the question of costs, it would be exceedingly expensive to backdate the payment of pensions. At the end of April 1995 there were 5,107 survivors contributory pensions in payment to widowers. In the week ending 30 April 1995 the number of applications received was 6,500 of which 5,170 were awarded, 320 were pending, 707 were refused, 212 were withdrawn and 91 were stopped. The estimated 1994 outturn on survivors contributory pension is £307 million, of which £2 million refers to widowers expenditure — that was just ten weeks' expenditure in 1994. It is estimated that the survivors pension will cost £342 million in 1995 of which £26 million refers to widowers. Backdating to prior to October 1994 would have a considerable cost. It is simply not possible to do it.
Does the Minister not accept that it is surely a question of equality, not cost? If widows were entitled to the money from the time they lost their spouse, surely widowers are entitled to the same. This is the argument that was made all last year on the question of equality for women. Surely this is a moral issue and payments to men should be based on the same principle of equality.
We all have views about what is moral and what is not. However, morality does not always enter into questions of law. The EC directive on equal treatment of men and women in matters of social security in 1979 excluded widows' pensions and similar payments. Accordingly the question of arrears for widowers does not arise in regard to that directive.
