Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 17 Nov 1999

Vol. 511 No. 1

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Data.

Ivor Callely

Question:

158 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of people in receipt of social welfare payments; the age profile of recipients; the daily cost of payments; the likely increase in 2000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23777/99]

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

Data on the number of recipients of social welfare payments at 1 December 1998 and September 1999 are contained in Table 1. Data on the age profile of recipients of the principal social welfare schemes are outlined in Table 2 to Table 12.

It is projected that the total cost, excluding administration, in 1999 of all social welfare schemes and services will be £4,743 million, representing expenditure of approximately £13 million per day.

The abridged Estimates for 2000, published earlier this month, provide for expenditure (excluding administration) of £4,904 million on all social welfare schemes and services. This represents expenditure of approximately £13.4 million per day. It should be noted that the abridged Estimates do not provide for any increases in expenditure which might arise as a consequence of budget 2000.

Table 1

Number of Recipients of Weekly Social Welfare Payments by Payment Type and Insurance or Assistance, December 1998 and September, 1999.

Type of Payment	Recipients	1998	September (1)1999	Change%
Old Age (Contributory) Pension	71,706	74,729	4.2%
Retirement Pension	75,316	77,946	3.5%
Widow/er's (Contributory) Pension	98,518	99,256	0.7%
Deserted Wife's Benefit	13,835	13,379	3.3%
Maternity Benefit	5,453	6,105	12.0%
Health and Safety Benefit	18	32	77.8%
Adoptive Benefit	12	19	58.3%
Orphan's (Contributory) Allowance	886	874	1.4%
Disability Benefit	43,766	46,327	5.9%
Invalidity Pension	44,925	46,252	3.0%
Injury Benefit	746	646	13.4%
Interim Disability Benefit	439	602	37.1%
Disablement Benefit	10,182	10,453	2.7%
Death Benefit Pension	630	649	3.0%
Unemployment Benefit	63,913	57,247	10.4%
Total Social Insurance	430,345	434,516	1.0%
Type of Payment	Recipients	1998	September (1)1999	Change%
Old Age (Non-Contributory) Pension	95,890	93,570	2.4%
Pre-Retirement Allowance	13,897	13,301	4.3%
Widow/er's (Non-Contributory) Pension	18,382	18,094	1.6%
Deserted Wife's Allowance	1,807	1,738	3.8%
Prisoner's Wife's Allowance	4	4	0.0%
One-Parent Family Payment	65,548	69,608	6.2%
Orphan's (Non-Contributory) Pension	531	587	10.5%
Disability Allowance	47,126	49,524	5.1%
Blind Person's Pension	2,358	2,306	2.2%
Carer's Allowance	11,416	13,642	19.5%
Unemployment Assistance	129,923	112,183	13.7%
Smallholders	6,476	1,256	80.6%
Farm Assist	0	6,519
Family Income Supplement	13,143	14,108	7.3%
Supplementary Welfare Allowance	16,300	20,377	25.0%
Rent Allowance	586	549	6.3%
Total Social Assistance	423,387	417,366	1.4%
Grand Total	853,732	851,882	0.2%

(1) In addition, at the end of September 1999, there were:– (a) 493,196 families in receipt of Child Benefit and (b) 40,475 recipients of Employment Support Services (Back to Work Allowance, Back to Work Enterprise Allowance, Back to Education Allowance and the Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme).

Table 2

Number of Recipients of Old Age Pensions by Type of Pension, Age and Sex, 1998 (Estimated)

Age Group	Old Age(Contributory)Pension			RetirementPension			Old Age(Non-Contributory)Pension			Total
	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females
Under 70	11,140	5,356	25,292	8,381	7,686	9,560	44,118	23,297
70 under 75	12,324	6,633	16,638	5,605	11,136	13,208	40,098	25,446
75 under 80	10,976	6,729	9,242	2,898	10,521	12,336	30,739	21,963
80 under 85	7,050	4,669	3,235	1,188	7,079	9,275	17,364	15,132
85 and over	3,479	3,350	1,805	1,032	4,796	10,293	10,080	14,675
Total	44,969	26,737	56,212	19,104	41,218	54,672	142,399	100,513
Overall Total	71,706			75,316			95,890			242,912

Table 3

Number of Recipients of Pre-Retirement Allowance by Age and Sex, 1998 (Estimated)

Age	Male	Female	Total
55	526	132	658
56	814	193	1,007
57	949	166	1,115
58	997	199	1,196
59	1,030	191	1,221
60	1,095	235	1,330
61	1,256	239	1,495
62	1,343	290	1,633
63	1,368	295	1,663
64	1,294	302	1,596
65	780	203	983
Total	11,452	2,445	13,897

Table 4

Number of Recipients of Widow/er's Pensions by Age and Sex, 1998 (Estimated)

Age	Contributory Pensions	Widows	Widowers	Total	Non-Contributory Pensions	Widows	Widowers	Total	OverallTotal
Under 25 years	7	1	8	–	–	–	8
25 to 29 years	65	6	71	3	–	3	74
30 to 34 years	253	61	314	2	–	2	316
35 to 39 years	722	181	903	15	2	17	920
40 to 44 years	1,269	382	1,650	24	4	28	1,678
45 to 49 years	2,270	662	2,933	104	5	109	3,042
50 to 54 years	4,207	1,162	5,369	362	14	376	5,745
55 to 59 years	6,189	1,436	7,625	737	17	754	8,379
60 to 64 years	9,914	1,900	11,814	1,609	19	1,628	13,442
65 to 69 years	12,395	1,007	13,401	2,874	20	2,894	16,295
70 to 74 years	15,474	557	16,031	3,962	5	3,967	19,998
75 to 79 years	16,402	506	16,908	4,204	2	4,206	21,114
80 years and over	20,914	577	21,491	4,394	4	4,398	25,889
Total	90,080	8,438	98,518	18,290	92	18,382	116,900

Table 5

Number of Recipients of Deserted Wife's Benefit, Deserted Wife's Allowance and Prisoner's Wife's Allowance, by Age, 1998 (Estimated)

Age	Deserted Wife's Benefit	Deserted Wife's Allowance	Prisoner's Wife's Allowance
Under 25 years	4	–	–
25 to 29 years	134	–	–
30 to 34 years	878	–	–
35 to 39 years	2,108	–	–
40 to 44 years	2,793	40	–
45 to 49 years	2,931	168	1
50 to 54 years	2,307	345	2
55 to 59 years	1,396	428
60 to 64 years	766	356	1
65 years and over	518	470
Total	13,835	1,807	4

Table 6

Number of Recipients of One-Parent Family Payment by Status of Parent, Age and Sex, 1998 (Estimated)

Age Group	Unmarried Parent,Separated Parent,Prisoner's Spouse			WidowedPerson			Total
	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females
Under 20 years	32	3,015	–	–	32	3,015
20 to 24 years	72	15,706	–	8	72	15,714
25 to 29 years	88	16,062	4	35	92	16,097
30 to 34 years	183	10,858	12	88	195	10,946
35 to 39 years	376	7,387	17	122	393	7,509
40 to 44 years	361	4,885	57	184	418	5,069
45 to 49 years	235	2,840	70	248	305	3,088
50 to 54 years	90	1,251	67	293	157	1,544
55 to 59 years	39	306	49	221	88	527
60 to 64 years	16	57	28	121	44	178
65 years and over	2	4	20	39	22	43
Total	1,494	62,371	324	1,359	1,818	63,730
Overall Total	63,865			1,683			65,548

Table 7

Number of Recipients of Disability Benefit by Age and Sex, 1998 (Estimated)

Age	Males	Females	Total
Under 25 years	1,053	1,141	2,194
25 to 29 years	965	2,320	3,285
30 to 34 years	1,098	4,058	5,156
35 to 39 years	1,509	4,168	5,677
40 to 44 years	1,968	3,658	5,626
45 to 49 years	2,189	3,169	5,358
50 to 54 years	2,552	2,986	5,538
55 to 59 years	2,732	2,521	5,253
60 to 64 years	3,304	1,987	5,291
65 years and over	194	194	388
Total	17,564	26,202	43,766

Table 8

Number of Recipients of Invalidity Pension by Age, Marital Status and Sex, 1998 (Estimated)

Sex and Age	Single	Married	Widowed and Others	Total
Males:
Under 66 years	5,626	17,899	1,749	25,274
66 years and over	342	828	136	1,306
Total Males	5,968	18,727	1,885	26,580
Females:
Under 66 years	3,547	12,476	1,106	17,129
66 years and over	248	761	207	1,216
Total Females	3,795	13,237	1,313	18,345
Grand Total	9,763	31,964	3,198	44,925

Table 9

Number of Recipients of Carer's Allowance by Age and Sex, 1998 (Estimated)

Age	Male	Female	Total
Under 25 years	41	107	148
25 to 29 years	64	189	253
30 to 34 years	135	375	510
35 to 39 years	255	622	877
40 to 44 years	391	1,010	1,401
45 to 49 years	498	1,364	1,862
50 to 54 years	471	1,542	2,013
55 to 59 years	325	1,299	1,624
60 to 64 years	249	1,237	1,486
65 years and over	164	1,078	1,242
Total	2,593	8,823	11,416

Table 10

Number of Recipients of Blind Person's Pension by Age and Sex, 1998 (Estimated)

Age	Male	Female	Total
Under 25 years	93	79	172
25 to 29 years	90	82	172
30 to 34 years	79	62	141
35 to 39 years	101	82	183
40 to 44 years	80	92	172
45 to 49 years	106	102	208
50 to 54 years	101	90	191
55 to 59 years	112	91	203
60 to 64 years	112	110	222
65 years and over	306	388	694
Total	1,180	1,178	2,358

Table 11

Number of Persons on the Live Register by Age and Sex, 1998 (Estimated)

Age Group	Males	Number	%	Females	Number	%	Total	Number	%
Under 20 years	4,978	3.9	4,499	5.1	9,477	4.4
20 to 24 years	18,711	14.8	14,378	16.2	33,089	15.3
25 to 34 years	34,632	27.3	27,705	31.1	62,337	28.9
35 to 44 years	29,895	23.6	22,113	24.9	52,008	24.1
45 to 54 years	26,839	21.2	14,063	15.8	40,902	19.0
55 to 59 years	7,461	5.9	4,106	4.6	11,567	5.4
60 to 64 years	4,259	3.4	2,113	2.4	6,372	3.0
Total Live Register	126,775	100.0	88,977	100.0	215,752	100.0

Table 12

Number of Families Receiving Family Income Supplement by Age of Recipient and Family Income Group, 1998

Age of Recipient	Family Income Group (£s per week)	0-100	101-140	141-170	171-200	201-230	231 or more	Total
15 to 24	29	217	659	597	122	7	1,631
25 to 34	126	459	1,192	1,437	727	217	4,158
35 to 44	172	514	1,094	1,462	1,088	545	4,875
45 to 60	90	291	639	689	452	211	2,372
60 or more	6	14	25	34	13	15	107
Total	423	1,495	3,609	4,219	2,402	995	13,143

Ivor Callely

Question:

159 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of people on reduced entitlements from his Department due to the 1953 rule on contributions and who have contributions prior to 1953; the cost implications if these claimants were to receive full benefits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23778/99]

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

The specific information requested by the Deputy is not available.

The final report of the National Pensions Board, 1993 stated that the facility for using pre-1953 contributions will end naturally at the end of the contribution year 2002-03. Some 59,000 people receive reduced rate or pro-rata, e.g. EU-Reciprocal Agreement, pensions under the old age contributory and retirement pensions schemes and all may potentially have some contributions in the pre-1953 era. The estimated full-year cost of extending a maximum rate pension to all of this group is £24 million.