Pat Rabbitte
Question:32 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs his views on the aspects of the 1997 programme for Government which concern his portfolio and which have yet to be delivered. [15294/01]
Written Answers. - Programme for Government.
I am very pleased to inform the Deputy that substantial progress has been made by my Department over the past four years in implementing the key commitments in both its Action Programme for the Millennium published in 1997 and the revised programme agreed in November 1999.
Our stated objective is to build an inclusive society where all citizens have the opportunity and the incentive to participate fully in the social and economic life of the country. After four years we can point to numerous notable successes in promoting an inclusive society. We have made determined efforts to break cycles of poverty and deprivation and significantly the main national anti-poverty strategy – NAPS – goals, with an original target date of 2007, have now been achieved. The overall target, as revised in 1999, is to reduce the numbers of those who are consistently poor from 9-15% of the population to less than 5% by 2004 and we are well on our way to achieving this target.
Under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, we have committed ourselves to revising and renewing the national anti-poverty strategy in consultation with the social partners.
We have recognised the need to deal decisively with the issue of welfare income adequacy. Significant improvements in social welfare schemes amounting to over £1.8 billion have been made over the past four years. Social welfare rates have improved significantly in real terms since we took office and payment dates for budgetary increases in rates have been brought forward each year with the aim of paying them from the start of the tax year in January 2002.
As part of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, we have entered into a number of social inclusion commitments with the social partners. This programme provides that in the period up to 2003, all rates of social welfare will be increased in real terms and substantial progress will be made towards a target of £100 per week for the lower rates of payments. These, together with the further improvements to which we are committed over the coming years demonstrates our guarantee that everyone will share in the benefits of social and economic development.
A working group has been established under the programme, with an independent chairperson, to examine the issues in relation to benchmarking and indexation of social welfare payments.
In our Government programme we pledged to bring the old age pension levels up to £100 per week by 2002 to ensure that all old age pensions increased in line with average industrial earnings. We are well on line to delivering on these commitments.
The effect of the increases we have introduced over the past four budgets is that the rate of old age contributory pension of £106 per week currently exceeds the £100 target and the rate of old age non-contributory pension now stands at £95.50 per week. In 1997 the old age contributory pension represented 27.5% of average industrial earnings. We have increased that each year to 31% in line to reach the national pensions initiative target of 34%.
In our action programme we are strongly committed to improving the position of people who take time out of the paid workforce to care for children or sick relatives. In budget 2001 I announced improvements in the qualified adult allowance for those over 66 years of age which will see this increasing to the full old age pension rate over a number of budgets. A major step towards this objective was taken in budget 2001 by providing an increase of £15 per week in the full qualified adult rate.
In addition, under the homemaker's scheme, years spent out of the workforce caring for children or incapacitated people may be disregarded when calculating entitlement to old age contributory or retirement pension. The scheme is currently effective from 1994 and a maximum of 20 years may be disregarded in this way. I am committed in principle to making the existing scheme effective from an earlier date than 1994 and replacing the disregards system with actual credits. These and other issues, including the cost and administrative implications involved, will be considered in the context of the second phase of the review of the qualifying conditions for old age contributory and retirement pensions which commenced earlier this year.
One of our key priorities in the revised programme is to bring forward a programme to effectively address child poverty. Over the past four budgets we have provided substantial improvements in the rates of child benefit and intend to continue to do so in line with our commitments in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness with a priority focus towards £100 per week for the third and subsequent children. The Government is committed to exceeding this by dramatically increasing child benefit by £1 billion over the three years of the programme.
Following this year's historic increases in budget 2001, the level of child benefit will be more than doubled from £30 per month for the first two children in 1997 to £67.50 from the beginning of June next. This investment of substantial resources to child benefit reflects the serious commitment this Government has made to supporting those who are responsible for raising our children and in tackling child poverty.
This Government fully recognises the valuable role of carers in our society. We have delivered on our commitments to relax the qualifying criteria for carer's allowance and to increase the value of the payment in real terms. We have introduced a wide range of increases both in terms of income supports and in terms of services provided. This is reflected in the increasing numbers of carers in receipt of carer's allowance and carer's benefit which have increased since we took up office from 9,200 to 17,300 and also are expected to reach 22,000 as a result of the improvements provided in budget 2001. Expenditure for carers has more than tripled from £36.5 million in 1997 to a projected £113.8 million this year.
In addition, I initiated a consultancy study on the future financing of long-term care at the end of last year. The study will encompass the financing of personal long-term care needs both in the community and in institutional care and the potential of the private sector or a combined public-private sector approach to develop new initiatives in this area.
An Action Programme for the Millennium attaches importance to maintaining the position of the family in Ireland as "one of our strongest national characteristics". In the first year of our term of office we published the findings of the Commission of the Family. The report is making a positive contribution to developing coherent, progressive and effective policies for families.
In line with the commission's recommendations, we have established a family affairs unit in my Department and provided significant extra funding to the Family Mediation Service and to marriage and child counselling and family and community centres.
In our revised programme we promised to establish the Family Mediation Service on a statutory basis and develop a strong regional network of accessible counselling services. The Govern ment has recently approved my proposals for the establishment under legislation of a new agency, the family support and mediation service, which will provide a comprehensive and coherent response for families who have need of support services.
We have also committed ourselves to establishing 100 family and community centres and to develop local offices to provide family services as recommended by the commission. There are currently some 70 centres either established or approved for funding throughout the country providing locally based community support to families and it is my intention to increase the number to the target set in our programme.
Pilot family services projects to provide improved information services for families operate on a one-stop shop basis in Cork, Finglas and Waterford. Some £12 million has been provided in the national development plan for the expansion of the projects over the next few years.
Another key priority in this area relates to lone parents and the need for measures to support them and facilitate their return to the workplace. Last year, I initiated a proactive programme for one-parent family payment recipients to ensure that they are aware of the employment, education and training opportunities available to them. I have also decided to localise the administration of the scheme from the pension services office in Sligo to my Department's local offices. This move will bring lone parents into closer contact on an ongoing basis with the various support services available in the Department's offices and will, therefore be useful in promoting the programmes available to encourage lone parents back into education, training and employment. A pilot scheme has recently been initiated in my Department's Tallaght office.
In budget 2001 I announced changes to the back to education scheme designed to assist and encourage young lone parents to return to education. Heretofore, the qualifying age for the back to education scheme was set at 21. However, from this autumn the scheme will be available to 18 year olds who have been in receipt of the one-parent family payment for at least six months and who have been out of the education system for two years.
In 1997 we pledged to reduce the burden of PRSI and levies with a particular emphasis on helping those in low-paid employment. Since then we have reduced the employee rates of PRSI and levies by 0.5% and 0.25%, respectively, and increased the exemption limits so that employees earning less than £226 per week do not pay a PRSI contribution and those earning less than £280 per week do not pay the health contribution.
Funding is provided under the scheme of grants to locally based community and family support groups. Some 36 women's groups are currently in receipt of three year core funding with £1.3 million committed in 2001.
We undertook in our action programme to attack fraud and abuse of the social welfare sys tem with the aim of freeing up resources to address real needs. Control savings in 1998, 1999 and 2000 amounted to £176 million, £192 million and £214 million, respectively. Legislation was also introduced in 1998 to improve the flow of information between certain public bodies to improve service and control fraud, by providing for the more widespread use of the PPSN number. It also specifies particular purposes for sharing of information between public bodies.