Vol. 509 No. 4
299 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the action, if any, he will take in the forthcoming budget to ensure that the graduated withdrawal of adult dependant allowance will apply to old age pension and invalidity pension to avoid the abrupt withdrawal of benefit. [20783/99]
The regulations which allow for the tapered withdrawal of the qualified adult allowance when the spouse or partner of the claimant has income of between £60 and £105 currently apply to recipients of unemployment benefit, unemployment assistance, disability benefit, disability allowance, pre-retirement allowance, injury benefit and unemployability supplement.
I will be examining the potential for introducing further enhancements of these arrangements, including the issue of applying the tapering arrangements to cover such other payments as old age and invalidity pensions, in the context of the forthcoming budget, having regard to the resources available and to the range of other priorities.
