Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 20 Oct 1998

Vol. 495 No. 4

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

Bernard Allen

Question:

284 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will make a statement on the situation whereby a person (details supplied) in County Cork, had her rent allowance terminated by the Southern Health Board when she took up a FÁS course to improve her job skills, and has been advised that the payment being made by FÁS has resulted in a situation where her combined income is in excess of the guidelines for eligibility for rent allowance; and his views on the principle that payments by FÁS for courses undertaken result in rent allowances being terminated. [20108/98]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, a weekly supplement may be paid in respect of rent or mortgage interest to people in receipt of social welfare or health board payments.

Entitlement to a supplement is determined by the health boards. Supplements are normally calculated to ensure that the person, after payment of rent or mortgage interest, has an income equal to the rate of SWA appropriate to the family circumstances, less £6. This £6 represents the minimum contribution which clients are required to pay from their own resources.

Applicants are also required to contribute any assessable means in excess of the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate towards their rent or mortgage interest supplement. Participants on certain specified schemes, such as community employment and back to work allowance may have an income up to £250 per week and retain their entitlement to rent or mortgage interest supplements subject to certain conditions. However, people participating in FÁS training courses are not covered by these special arrangements. FÁS training allowances are assessed as means for the purpose of determining entitlement to a rent or mortgage supplement.

The position in the case raised by the Deputy is that the person concerned was in receipt of a rent supplement of £69.90 up to the 19 September 1998. When she moved address and applied for a rent supplement in respect of her new address, she informed the health board that she was participating in a one year FÁS course in child care and was in receipt of an additional income of £94 per week from the course. As her total means of £185.70 weekly exceeded the standard SWA limit for a household in her circumstances, she was no longer entitled to a rent supplement. An appeal was lodged and the Appeals Officer upheld this decision.

Any change in the current position to permit the automatic payment of rent supplement to FÁS trainees would have significant cost implications and could only be considered in a budgetary context.

Bernard Allen

Question:

285 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if the case of a person (details supplied) in County Cork will be examined in view of the fact that her rent allowance of £57 per week stopped when she decided to take an advanced skills course with FÁS, and was only restored to £47 per week on appeal, particularly, in view of the fact that she was receiving the £57 per week rent subsidy on a community employment scheme previously; and the full £57 per week rent subsidy will be restored. [20109/98]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, a weekly supplement may be paid in respect of rent or mortgage interest to people in receipt of social welfare or health board payments.

Entitlement to a supplement is determined by the health boards. Supplements are normally calculated to ensure that the person, after payment of rent or mortgage interest, has an income equal to the rate of SWA appropriate to the family circumstances, less £6. This £6 represents the minimum contribution which clients are required to pay from their own resources.

Applicants are also required to contribute any assessable means in excess of the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate towards their rent or mortgage interest supplement.

Participants on certain specified schemes, such as community employment and back to work allowance, may have an income up to £250 per week and retain their entitlement to rent-mortgage interest supplements subject to certain conditions. People participating in FÁS training courses are not covered by these special arrangements. FÁS training allowances are assessed as means for the purpose of determining entitlement to a rent or mortgage supplement.

In the case raised by the Deputy, the person concerned participated in a community employment (CE) scheme from 1 September 1997 to 8 August 1998 and was in receipt of £57.70 per week, the maximum rent supplement payable under the terms of the scheme.

When the person in question commenced a FÁS training course on 31 August 1998, her rent supplement was reduced to £1.90. She appealed this decision but the Appeals Officer upheld the original decision. The Appeals Officer also awarded in additional supplement of £45 per week to the appellant taking into account the individual circumstances of the case.

Jack Wall

Question:

286 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has to change the carer's allowance guidelines to permit a person caring for two or more qualified persons to receive a double or multiple payment. [20153/98]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

The carer's allowance is a social assistance scheme which provides an income maintenance payment to people who are providing elderly or incapacitated pensioners or certain persons with disabilities with full-time care and attention, and whose incomes fall below certain limits. An additional payment of 50 per cent of the basic rate is paid to carers who are caring for more than one person.

There were 11,138 persons in receipt of carer's allowance at the end of September 1998, of whom 1,286 (11.5 per cent) were in receipt of a higher payment for caring for more than one person.

In An Action Programme for the Millennium the Government is committed to:—

—progressively relaxing the qualifying criteria for the carer's allowance to ensure that more carers can get the benefit; and

—increasing the value of the allowance in real terms.

In line with these commitments, an overall review of the carer's allowance has been completed and was published earlier this month. The specific proposals in the review will be examined in detail in the context of the 1999 budget.

The introduction of a double or multiple payment for carers who are caring for more than one person would involve additional expenditure which could only be considered in a budgetary context.

Bernard J. Durkan

Question:

287 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will consider granting an increase in child benefit for twins in view of the fact that under the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provision) Act, 1965, each twin should receive double child benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20180/98]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

The Deputy will be aware that arising from the 1998 budget a range of enhancements to the child benefit scheme came into effect last month.

In particular, the enhancements included the introduction of a new payment of 150 per cent of the normal child benefit rate for twins, in recognition of the additional difficulties which may be faced by the parents of twins. Other enhancements included increases in the rate of child benefit of £1.50 for the first two children and £3 for all subsequent children, bringing the monthly rates to £31.50 and £42 respectively.

Any further enhancement of the child benefit scheme is a matter for consideration in a budgetary context.

Richard Bruton

Question:

288 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the fact that persons on a back to education allowance who obtain an increase in their basic rate of payment to the unemployment benefit rate are finding that they lose a similar amount off their secondary benefits which are being reassessed to take account of this concession; his views on whether this is at variance with the principle of retention of secondary benefits applied elsewhere, including the back to work allowance where additional income gained by entering the scheme is not used to reduce secondary benefits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20293/98]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

The back to education allowance, which with effect from January 1998 merged the former third level allowance and second level allowance into a unified scheme, provides for a standard weekly rate of payment to participants equivalent to the maximum rate of unemployment benefit and the retention of secondary benefits such as rent or mortgage supplements under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme.

The vast majority of participants of the allowance are in receipt of the maximum rate of their unemployment payment where they go onto the allowance and continue to receive their rent-mortgage supplement at the same level as previously. The issue raised by the Deputy concerns participants who were previously in receipt of a reduced rate of unemployment payment and who, on the commencement of the back to education allowance, receive an increase in their basic payment to the maximum rate. Because the level of rent-mortgage supplements depends on the income level of the recipient, the increase in basic payment to the maximum rate has the effect of reducing the level of their supplement. I am examining the whole question of retention of secondary benefits at present and following this examination I will be bringing forward proposals to address a number of anomalies in the present arrangements. The issue raised by the Deputy will also be addressed in that context.

Liam Aylward

Question:

289 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the reason for the delay in processing an application by a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny under the scheme of community support for older people in view of the fact the application was made almost six months ago. [20408/98]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

As you are aware my Department has, since 1996, operated the scheme of community support for older people, the purpose of which is to provide funding for initiatives to improve the security and social support of vulnerable older people. This funding is provided by way of grant to voluntary groups who have undertaken to identify those elderly people in need of assistance under the scheme.

The maximum grant available under the scheme is 90 per cent of the cost and grants are provided only towards the once-off cost of the purchase and-or installation of the necessary equipment. The actual amount of the grant varies in the light of individual circumstances and needs and the overall demands which must be met.

A sum of £2 million was again allocated to the scheme in the 1998 Estimates. The closing date for applications for the scheme was 22 May and applications received before that date are currently being considered in the Regional Offices of my Department.

The objective of the scheme is to address the security needs of vulnerable older people and a significant number of people have benefited in this regard. There has again been a very high level of demand in relation to the scheme this year.

As I already announced, I have obtained Government approval for the allocation of an additional £3 million to the scheme in 1998. I envisage that the 1998 grants will be made, within the revised allocation, within the next few weeks. The additional allocation brings the amount made available over the past two years to £10 million. This represents a significant increase in the level of support for this scheme and will provide the necessary resources to meet the volume of worthwhile applications received.

I can confirm that an application has been received from a group in respect of the individual mentioned in the Deputy's question. My Department expect to be in a position soon to advise this group of the decision regarding their application under the scheme.