Written Answers. - Pension Provisions.
Paul McGrath
Question:
23
Mr. McGrath
asked the
Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs
the consideration, if any, he will give to paying widow's contributory and non-contributory pensions on a rate comparable to those payable to old age pensioners; the estimated costs involved; and the plans, if any, he has to improve the income for widows dependent on payments from his Department.
[14323/99]
The widow(er)'s pension schemes recognise the particular financial difficulties that arise for people following the death of a spouse.
The qualifying conditions for the widow(er)'s (contributory) pension scheme are more flexible than those applying to the old age and retirement pensions. Widowed people can qualify by using either their own or their late spouse's social insurance record: in addition, a person may also use the full social insurance record or the record over the previous three or five years to satisfy the yearly average condition.
From June, the weekly rate of the widow(er)'s (contributory) pension – £82.10 per week for those over 66 and under 80 years of age – will be 114 per cent of the main rate recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare. The maximum rate of the old age (contributory) pension – £89.00 per week – will stand at 124 per cent of this recommended rate.
A widow's and widower's non-contributory pension is available to those, without children, who do not qualify for the contributory pension. This is payable subject to a means test. From June, the maximum rate of both the widow(er)'s non-contributory and the old age (non-contributory) pensions – £78.50 for those over 66 and under 80 years of age – will be 109 per cent of the commission's recommended rate.
Title to these pensions also gives access to the free schemes, where appropriate. In this context, special measures are in place to ensure that households do not suffer the loss of entitlements following the death of a spouse. Widows/ widowers aged from 60 to 65 whose late spouses had been in receipt of the free schemes retain that entitlement.
In June, the rate of the one parent family payment – £78.50 for those over 66 – will also reach 109 per cent of the recommended CSW rate. This payment is available to those widowed people with children, who do not qualify for a contributory widow(er)'s pension. It is available to both men and women who are parenting alone and is designed to, firstly, provide basic income support, taking into account the special needs and requirements of single parents and, secondly, to encourage lone parents to return to the workforce so that, over time, they can achieve a greater degree of economic independence. To this end, an earnings disregard of £115.38 per week is available under the one-parent family payment means test to those lone parents in employment.
The pensions board, in its report Securing Retirement Income, recommended that social welfare pensions should be increased in line with prices at a minimum – and, ideally, in line with earnings – and that it would be desirable to aim, over a five to 10 year period, to increase social welfare pensions to 34 per cent of average industrial earnings.
The Government has noted the recommendations of the board in this regard. In An Action Programme for the Millennium, we set out our intention to ensure that the contribution made to Irish society by older people would be recognised. In this regard, budget '99 provided for a £6 per week increase in the personal rate of pensions for people over 66 years of age, following the £5 per week increase provided in budget '98. The question of future improvements in social welfare provisions for widows and widowers – as for all social welfare clients – and the PRSI financing implications of these is a matter for consideration by the Government in a budgetary context.
The estimated full year costs – rates effective from June 1999 – as requested by the Deputy are: £45 million if all social welfare payments to widows-widowers were increased to the corresponding old age pension rates; and £24 million if the increase only applied to those aged 66 or over.
