Vol. 494 No. 5
43 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has, in the context of the forthcoming budget, to increase the rate of old age pensions by 50 per cent in the case of a surviving pensioner to compensate for the costs associated with running a household on a fixed single income; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18700/98]
53 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the proposals, if any, he has to increase the old age pension in the forthcoming budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17681/98]
60 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has to bring all means tested payments up to the minimally adequate levels recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare in 1986. [18677/98]
62 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has to increase the rate of widow and widower's pensions by 50 per cent to compensate for the costs associated with running a household on a fixed single income in the context of the 1998 budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18699/98]
115 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has to address the income of widows in the 1998 budget in view of their circumstances in relation to other pensioners. [18803/98]
124 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has to increase the adult dependant allowance on invalidity pensions and social assistance payments in line with old age pensions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18813/98]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 43, 53, 60, 62, 115 and 124 together.
The 1998 budget provided for a special increase of £5 per week in the maximum personal rates of payment for some 270,000 pensioners aged 66 and over, with pro rata increases for a further 54,000 pensioners on reduced rate contributory pensions. These increases marked a considerable first step in meeting the commitment in the Government's programme to increase the old age contributory pension to £100 per week by the year 2002.
The Partnership 2000 agreement contains a commitment that the minimum rates recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare, or CSW, will be implemented before the end of the Partnership, that is, 1999. Substantial progress has already been made in this. In addition to the £5 increase for pensioners, the 1998 budget provided for a general increase of £3 per week in all rates of payment for those aged under 66 years. This means that payments to more than 797,900 recipients, or 93.5 per cent of all recipients, are about or above the minimum CSW recommended rates, while payments to a further 57,000 recipients of short-term social assistance, or 6.5 per cent of the total, are still about 3 per cent below the target rate. In addition, qualified adult allowances were increased by 3 per cent in general, giving actual increases of between £1.20 and £1.50. As a result of these increases, the qualified adult allowance rates now range between 56 per cent and 69 per cent of the respective personal rates.
The question of future increases in social welfare payments, including the level of increases for old age pensioners, widows, widowers and qualified adults, is a matter for consideration by the Government in a budgetary context in the light of available resources and having regard to the commitments contained in the Government programme, An Action Programme for the Millennium, Partnership 2000 and the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.
I take it the Minister answered Questions Nos. 43, 53, 60, 62, 115 and 124.
Yes.
There is a certain familiarity about the Minister's script.
I do not agree with that.
Does the Minister accept that the greatest poverty and potential hardship is for a surviving partner? When one partner passes on the remaining partner is left with one pension less an adult dependant allowance, whichever the case may be. The same household costs and outgoings still apply. The only reduction in the household budget is in terms of food. In those circumstances, a substantial increase is required not only for the first five to six weeks after the bereavement but continuously to cater for those running costs.
I accept that. This year's budget was not a repeat of previous years and we gave widowers over the age of 66 years a substantial increase of between 6.4 per cent and 7.4 per cent which was ahead of the inflation rate. The Minister for Finance also brought forward considerable relief in the tax allowances available to widows so that was a package addressed to the issue of widows. I accept, and it is acknowledged, that widows and widowers have a difficulty when their partner passes on. The full year cost of increasing contributory and non contributory widows and widowers pension by 50 per cent would be in the region of £220 million. To increase old age pensions by 50 per cent in the case of a surviving pensioners without qualified adults would cost in the region of £380 million. It is a substantial amount totalling £600 million.
Those figures are not correct.
Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.
