I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am glad, as Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, of the opportunity to introduce my first Bill in this House. The primary purpose of this Bill is to give effect to the various social welfare improvements provided for in the 1998 budget last December which require legislative changes. It is the first major legislation to come before the House in fulfilment of the commitments given in the Government's programme, An Action Programme for the Millennium, to address the issues of social exclusion, marginalisation and poverty in our community. This includes delivering on certain key commitments in Partnership 2000.
The Bill provides for substantial real increases in the value of all social welfare payments; significant improvements in payments for pensioners; the bringing forward of increases in weekly payments by two weeks; fundamental reform of the FIS scheme; additional support for families; special child benefit payment for twins and improved grants for children of multiple births; easement of the means tests for certain social assistance schemes; a firm basis for developing a more integrated administration of our public services; relief to over 1 million workers paying PRSI and a strengthening of the PRSI system with regular actuarial reviews of the social insurance fund. It also contains a number of other adjustments and amendments to the social welfare code.
The resources provided by the Government in the recent budget for social welfare improvements amount to £125 million this year and £225 million in a full year. It is the largest budget package for many years, allocating £11 million — or 9 per cent — more than was provided in the 1997 budget. As a result of this year's initiatives, the commitment to spend £525 million on social inclusion measures — including social welfare rate increases — during the three year period of Partnership 2000 has been more than exceeded in the first two years. The increased allocation of £125 million this year will bring overall spending in 1998 by my Department to £4.85 billion. I will now outline the provisions in the Bill.
The Bill contains seven parts. Part l contains the usual provisions of construction citation and continuance of instruments. Part II provides for the increases in social welfare payments.
In our programme for Government we are committed to increasing the rate of contributory old age pension to £100 over a five year period. In recognition of the contribution which our older people have made in developing our economy and improving the quality of life in our community, the Government decided to go beyond what is strictly required by that commitment this year. Accordingly, it has given a special increase of £5 per week in the maximum personal rates of payments to pensioners with proportionate increases for those on reduced rates of pension. The Government is also committed to providing substantial increases in other social welfare payments. In addition, Partnership 2000 guarantees that the real income position of those dependent on social welfare would be protected and enhanced and that the minimum rate recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare would be implemented before the end of Partnership 2000 in 1999.
These special increases in pensions, which represent increases of between 6.4 per cent and 7.4 per cent for those who receive them is a clear indication of the Government's desire to fulfil the promises given in the Government programme. As a result of these provisions 94 per cent of people who rely on weekly social welfare payments will now receive more than the recommended minimum rate of payment of the Commission on Social Welfare. The implementation dates for these increases is being brought forward by two weeks this year with the result that all the increased rates will be paid from the first week in June.
Section 4 provides for the increases in social insurance payments of £5 in the weekly maximum personal rate of payments to pensioners aged 66 years and over and in the maximum rates of retirement and invalidity pensions payable to people aged 65 years and over. All other personal rates of social insurance payments are being increased by £3 per week and payments in respect of qualified adults are being increased by approximately 3 per cent. Similarly, section 5 provides that social assistance recipients aged 66 years and over will receive a £5 increase in their weekly personal rate and those under 66 years will receive £3 per week. As with social insurance payments, increases in respect of qualified adults will be approximately 3 per cent.
Section 6 of the Bill provides for increases in child benefit of £1.50 for the first two children and £3 for each subsequent child, bringing the monthly rate of child benefit to £31.50 and £42 respectively. This section also introduces much needed improvements in respect of multiple births. The rate of child benefit payable in respect of twins will be one and half times the normal rate. Also, the grants payable in respect of multiple births are being aligned so that all multiple births will receive a grant of £500 on birth and further grants of £500 at the age of four and 12 years. These improvements will be effective from September 1998.
Section 7 provides for improvements in family income supplement. For the first time FIS will be assessed on a net basis, that is, gross income less superannuation contributions, income tax and PRSI. This improvement delivers on the commitment in Partnership 2000 to calculate entitlement to FIS on the basis of net earnings. This scheme is designed to ensure that unemployed people have an incentive to take up work and employees have an incentive to stay in work by providing an income supplement to low income families in employment. This improvement, which will come into effect on 1 October 1998, will bring an extra 1,600 families within the scope of the scheme in 1998 and about 7,000 in a full year. In addition to this improvement, section 7 also provides for a general increase of £7 in the weekly thresholds for the calculation of entitlement to FIS from June of this year. As a result all current recipients will benefit by at least £4 per week. In overall terms, the effect of the budget changes will mean that a two child family where the breadwinner is earning £210 per week will gain an extra £18 per week in household income.
Section 8 provides for increases in social insurance allowances, thresholds and ceilings. Under this provision the amount of an employee's earnings not subject to social insurance contributions will increase from the current £80 per week to £100 per week. The threshold under which employers are liable for the lower 8.5 per cent rate of employer contribution will increase from £260 per week to £270 per week and the earnings ceiling up to which social insurance contributions are payable will increase from £23,200 per annum to £24,200 per annum for employees and from £27,900 per annum to £29,000 per annum for employers. These changes will come into effect on 6 April. Section 9 provides for a similar increase in the income ceiling for self-employed contributors to that of employees, that is, from £23,200 per annum to £24,200 per annum.
Part III of the Bill provides for improvements in social welfare schemes. Section 10 provides for an easement of the rules for assessing means for certain social assistance schemes. An amount not exceeding the rate of old age contributory pension which is received by way of a foreign social security disability pension will be disregarded from the assessment of means for carer's allowance. Rental income will be disregarded for the purposes of widow's and widower's non-contributory pension where the rent is paid by a person who lives with the widow or widower and that widow or widower would otherwise live alone.
The first £2,000 of any income received under the special areas of conservation scheme will be disregarded in assessing means for unemployment assistance, pre-retirement allowance and old age non-contributory pension. A similar disregard currently operates in the case of REPS income. I have recently obtained Government approval for a further improvement in this last measure. I intend to put forward on Committee Stage an amendment to extend this disregard even further. At present all such income in excess of £2,000 is fully taken into account in the assessment of means. I propose that in future only half of any remaining income above the £2,000 threshold will be assessed. This measure will provide a real incentive for many smallholders to avail of these schemes. The additional cost of this improvement will be approximately £200,000 in the current year.
Section 11 provides regulatory powers to prescribe for payments in respect of loss of purchasing power where a claim for a social welfare payment is delayed over 12 months and the claimant is not responsible for the delay. These powers also provide for payment of costs necessarily incurred by the person in making a claim.
When a person whose spouse is being paid a carer's allowance to look after him or her dies, the social welfare payment will be paid to the carer at the married rate for six weeks following the death. However, carers in exactly the same situation except that the spouse was not in receipt of a social welfare payment do not receive any such payment. This anomaly is rectified by section 12 which provides that in such circumstances the carer will continue to receive carer's allowance for six weeks following the death.
Deputies are aware of concerns regarding the full-time care and attention requirements of the carer's allowance. I have recently reviewed the operation of this requirement and I am pleased to say that a more flexible approach should be adopted. Carers may attend educational or training courses or participate in voluntary or community based activities, for around ten hours per week, provided the carer makes adequate provision for the care recipient in his or her absence. These new arrangements will come into effect immediately. Furthermore, in the recent budget I extended the free travel pass to all carers in their own right. This is a clear indication of the Government's policy in relation to the needs of carers. As Deputies are aware, there is a comprehensive interdepartmental review of the carer's allowance currently being undertaken under the chairmanship of my Department, which will be completed by the middle of the year and further improvements will be considered in light of that review.
Section 13 amends two definitions in the social welfare code. The definition of "child dependant" is amended to ensure the continued payment of child dependant allowance where the parent is in receipt of long-term payments and the child has left school and is not entitled to claim unemployment assistance. It also amends the definition of "Minister" to the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs in the light of the additional responsibilities assigned since last year.
I would now like to outline a number of new measures the Government has decided to introduce to improve the delivery of public services to the community. In its Action Programme for the Millennium, the Government aims to make public administration more relevant to the citizens for whom the service exists through focusing public administration on the needs of the customer. The legislative proposals contained in Part IV, sections 14 and 15 of the Bill provide a framework for the development of an integrated approach to the administration, delivery, management and control of publicly funded income support services. The main aim of these proposals is to introduce greater coherence to the provision of the various social services by making them more accessible and user-friendly, more co-ordinated, simpler to understand and easier to manage. This approach will lead to better service for the public and contribute to greater control of schemes.
Sections 14 and 15 provide for four elements: the standardisation of the RSI number as a personal public service number; the introduction of a public service card on the lines of the existing social services card; the use of new technology on cards to develop new methods of paying social welfare benefits by way of electronic direct delivery to the customer and the sharing of information between relevant agencies for the purpose of determining entitlement to and control of certain means tested social services. I commend my predecessor for the work done in preparing the interdepartmental report on the development of an integrated social services system, ISSS, which was published in August 1996 and forms the basis for the measures I am taking. The personal public service number will replace the RSI number currently issued by my Department. Over 3 million RSI numbers have been registered with my Department since 1979 and they are currently used by several public service agencies, such as my Department; the Revenue Commissioners in tax administration; the Department of Education and Science in the administration of higher education grants; the Department of Agriculture and Food in administering the early retirement scheme for farmers and health boards in administering supplementary welfare allowance.
In future it will be used as a key identifier by certain specified agencies. These include Government Departments, health boards, local authorities, the Revenue Commissioners, FÁS, the General Register's Office and the Legal Aid Board. It is intended to add to this list over time and the Bill provides for this in regulations which require a positive resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas.
The public service card will replace the current social services card, of which over 1.6 million have been issued to date. The new card will have the person's name, their personal public service number and the card's primary account number visible on front. The initial cards will contain a magnetic strip on the back with the person's name, personal public service number, date of birth and gender encoded.
Following publication of the Bill, there was a degree of confusion about the intended use of the new number and public service card. I wish to clarify a number of aspects which have not been fully understood. First, I assure the House that the personal public service number will not become a de facto national personal identifier. The Bill provides it will act as a single identifier for public administration purposes only and may only be sought by the public service when there is a transaction between the person and the public service.
I also stress that the public service card will not be a general identity card as the provisions in the Bill make it illegal to use it apart from accessing public services. For instance, it may not be used for identity purposes by the Garda, publicans, etc. The Bill also contains a proposal to allow for certain information to be placed on commercial cards for the purposes of paying social welfare benefits. This means social welfare recipients may in future collect their payment via ATMs, banks, supermarkets or a variety of retail outlets.
The Bill includes provision for the sharing of information relating to a number of the most common means tests applied by various Departments or agencies. For example, a person who becomes unemployed or has separated may have to undergo separate means tests for supplementary welfare allowance, a social welfare payment, a medical card and differential rents in the same week. This can lead to a great deal of frustration among people accessing these services. Our aim is to put in place, over time, better administrative procedures by various State agencies which will enable them to share the latest available means data for customers. The means information will be stored on a central means database which has been developed by my Department and will be accessible to other relevant agencies where a customer has made a claim. This will help ensure a better and quicker service for the customer and ease difficulties currently experienced in accessing such services. It is intended the new arrangement on data sharing will apply in the case of social welfare schemes operated by my Department; certain income support schemes provided by the Department of Health and Children; medical cards; higher education grants; differential rents and civil legal aid. In effect the information required for any of these services will only be provided once. Similarly, corrections to existing information will also be shared so that a person will only have to tell his or her story once.
I assure the House these provisions are fully consistent with the provisions of the 1981 Council of Europe Convention, which was ratified by the Data Protection Act, 1988. I am satisfied the Government has addressed the need for efficient public services and personal privacy protection in a balanced way. The provisions outlined in the Bill contain adequate safeguards for the protection of the individual's right to privacy.
For example, it shall be an offence to use a personal public service number and/or a public service card other than for the purposes for which it is intended under the legislation; the holder of a card may at any time request a copy of the information encoded on his or her card and it may be read only by specially programmed computer systems; data sharing will be restricted for the specific purpose of entitlement to and control of certain means tested social services. While the personal public service number will be widely used, data sharing will only be permitted for purposes specified in law, approved by the Oireachtas and in conformity with established data protection obligations. Existing data controllers in all Government Departments and agencies, who are responsible for ensuring data protection requirements are enforced, must be satisfied that any proposed data sharing is relevant to a specified lawful purpose. Under existing legislation, people have the right to receive a copy of any computerised personal information held by a public body. This will be further extended when the Freedom of Information Act, 1997, comes into effect in April 1998.
Part V of the Bill provides a number of amendments to the social welfare code. Section 16 is a technical amendment relating to the financial management of the social insurance fund. Section 17 provides for actuarial reviews of the social insurance fund to be completed on a five yearly basis and the reports of such reviews to be laid before the Oireachtas. The final report of the National Pensions Board, published in December 1993, included a series of projections setting out the future costs of social welfare pensions. It also recommended that an actuarial review of the projected long-term costs of these pensions be carried out every five years and I recently published the first such review.
Section 18 clarifies the entitlement to pre-retirement allowance for separated spouses and consolidates the legislative provisions for the allowance. Section 19 is a consequential amendment to the provision of an increase of £5 per week in the personal rate of blind pension to those who have attained pension age. Section 20 amends and extends the recovery procedures for social welfare payments. It provides for the recovery of money wrongfully received by a person from that person's current or future social welfare payments and avoids unnecessary recourse to the courts.
Section 21 provides for the extension, by three months, of the period in respect of which arrears may be paid in the case of a late claim for certain occupational injuries benefits. It also provides that decisions regarding the payment of late claims made under regulations will be a deciding officer function and may be appealed to the independent social welfare appeals office. I recently signed regulations providing for the extension of the period for which late claims may be paid. They provide, in respect of contributory pension claims received more than 12 months late, for payment on a proportional basis where the statutory conditions are satisfied and the claim was received on or after 1 January 1997, and also provide for payments on a proportional basis depending on how late the claim is made. They permit full retrospection in several limited circumstances, such as incapacity or incorrect information issued by the Department, but I strongly emphasise that everyone should apply for their social welfare entitlements in good time.
Section 22 provides that it will be an offence for a person not to comply with a request for information required for the purposes of investigation of entitlement or control of social welfare schemes. Section 23 provides that the appointment of social welfare inspectors may be delegated to an officer of the Department. Section 24 provides for a definition of "liable relative", minor technical amendments to the liable relative provisions and that the District Court shall, where necessary, decide the manner in which contributions should be made. Section 25 provides for the introduction of the provisions of Part V by way of commencement order.
Part V, sections 26 and 27, provide for the raising of the thresholds from £197 to £207 per week, or in annual terms from £10,250 per annum to £10,750 per annum, above which the health contribution and employment and training levy apply. These provisions will come into effect on 6 April 1998. Part VI, section 28, amends section 54 of the Pensions Act, 1990, to provide regulatory powers to prescribe information to be provided by the trustees of occupational pension schemes and to whom such information is to be provided.
This Bill is one of the most radical Social Welfare Bills presented to the Oireachtas in recent years. It has many facets in that it recognises the contribution our older people have made in building the Ireland of today, while setting out the parameters under which the modern State will develop its public, and particularly its social services, in the new millennium. For those reasons, particularly for the large increases given in the budget, I commend the Bill to the House and look forward to a constructive and useful debate.