Vol. 483 No. 3
312 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will extend the free travel scheme to encompass widows and widowers who are in receipt of payments from his Department; and the estimated cost of this extension. [20370/97]
319 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of widows in receipt of widow's contributory and widow's non-contributory pensions from his Department; the estimated cost of extending free electricity allowance, free telephone allowance, free television licence allowance and living alone allowance regardless of age to each of those widows. [20594/97]
It is proposed to take Questions Nos. 312 and 319 together.
Free travel is available to all person in the State aged 66 years, or over, and to certain people with disabilties under the age of 66. The scheme will benefit an estimated 497,000 people this year at a cost of £32.4 million.
The other free schemes are available to people, usually aged 66 or over, who are in receipt of a welfare type payment and are either living alone or who otherwise satisfy this condition. In addition, widows between the age of 60 and 65, whose late husbands had entitlement to the free schemes, retain that entitlement notwithstanding their age.
At the end of September this year, there were 96,966 recipients of widow's and widower's, contributory pension and 18,845 recipients of widow's, non-contributory, pension from my Department.
The extension of the free travel scheme to include widows and widowers, not currently qualified, would entail additional expenditure of some £3 million in a full year. The cost of extending the free electricity allowance, free telephone rental allowance, free television licence and living alone allowance to include widows and widowers, not currently qualified, would entail additional expenditure or some £50 million in a full year. The extension of these schemes would involve significant additional expenditure which could only be considered in a budgetary context.
313 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will compare the level of child dependant allowance payable by his Department with similar payments available in the United Kingdom; the reason for the much lower rate which is paid in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20371/97]
The social welfare systems operating here and in the UK are not identical and direct comparison are thus difficult to make. For illustrative purposes, the child dependant allowances (CDAs) paid with a range of social welfare payments in the UK and the analgous payments here are set out in the following table.
It will be seen that, in relation to insurance based payments, the level of CDAs payable is higher in Ireland in all cases. In relation to means-tested payments, however, the rates in the UK vary with the age of the child and are generally higher than CDAs paid with social assistance in Ireland. It should also be noted, however, that personal rates of payment tend to be higher in Ireland than in the UK, so that the higher rates of CDAs would not always lead to a higher total payment to a specific family.
|
UK |
Ireland |
||
|
ST£ |
IR£ |
||
|
Jobseeker's Allowance (Contributory) |
Nil |
Unemployment Benefit |
13.30 |
|
Short-term Incapacity Benefit |
11.20 |
Disability Benefit |
13.20 |
|
Widowed Mother's Allowance |
11.20 |
Widow's/Widower's Contributory Pension |
17.00 |
|
Retirement Pension |
11.20 |
Old Age Contributory Pension |
15.20 |
|
Jobseeker's Allowance (Income based). |
16.90- |
Unemployment Assistance |
13.20 |
|
29.60* |
