Seán Ryan
Question:79 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs his views on whether social welfare rates should be indexed to wages and salaries. [29720/00]
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Payments.
Under the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, a working group has been established to examine the range of issues associated with the benchmarking and indexation of social welfare payments. This will include their long-term economic, budgetary, PRSI contribution, distributive and incentive implications, in light of trends in economic, demographic and labour market patterns. It is envisaged that the working group will also take account of work being carried out to review the underlying methodology of the national anti-poverty strategy.
A chairperson for the group has been appointed, social partners and relevant Departments have nominated representatives, and the group met for the first time this morning.
As outlined in the PPF, there are complex issues involved in developing a benchmark for adequacy of adult and child social welfare payments, including the implications of adopting a specific approach to the ongoing uprating or indexation of payments.
While the Deputy cites wages and salaries as a possible index, this is just one of a number of options that may be available for consideration by the group. It would, however, be inappropriate to pre-empt discussions of the working group at this point.