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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 12 Jun 2001

Vol. 537 No. 5

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

Question:

415 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if persons who are handicapped and have not been in a position to pay PRSI contributions through employment can obtain a funeral grant; if this situation applies to persons in this category under the age of 22; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17379/01]

Jackie Healy-Rae

Question:

418 Mr. Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the discrimination against a certain group of people with intellectual disability or mental handicap, whose families are being refused the payment of a burial grant, on the grounds of being over 22 years of age, without being in full-time education until that age and without PRSI contributions; the steps he will take to remedy this situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16598/01]

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin

Question:

421 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the proposals he has to extend the burial grant to those with a disability and who are not in a position to contribute to the social insurance fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16621/01]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 415, 418 and 421 together.

The bereavement grant – formerly death grant – is a payment based on PRSI contri butions, designed to assist families in dealing with death and funeral expenses.
The grant is payable on the death of an insured person; the wife or husband of an insured person; the widow or widower of an insured person; a child under age 18, or under age 22 if in full-time education, where either parent or the person that the child normally lives with satisfies the PRSI contribution conditions; a contributory pensioner; the wife or husband of a contributory pensioner; the qualified adult of a contributory pensioner, including those who would be a qualified adult but are getting another social welfare payment, for example, carer's allowance; a qualified child; and an orphan in receipt of orphan's contributory allowance.
The bereavement grant was totally redesigned in 1999 to provide for a five-fold increase in the rate of payment from £100 to the current rate of £500. In addition, the payment was extended to include self-employed PRSI contributors and those covered by the modified rate of social insurance in addition to those paying full-rate PRSI contributions.
A person who has insufficient PRSI contributions will not qualify for a bereavement grant. However, there are other measures in place that are designed to assist people in the immediate aftermath of bereavement, for example, the payment of six weeks social welfare following the death of certain social welfare recipients or their spouse.
Budget 2000 provided for the introduction of a once-off payment of £1,000 payable to widows and widowers with dependent children who qualify for a widow(er's) contributory pension, one-parent family payment or a bereavement grant.
In addition, under the supplementary welfare allowance, a health board may make a single payment to help meet essential, once-off exceptional expenditure, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her weekly income.
These payments, known as exceptional needs payments, may be made towards funeral expenses where it is established that there is an inability to meet the costs by the family concerned.
Any further developments in these arrangements would have expenditure implications and could only be considered in the context of future budgets and available resources.

Michael Ring

Question:

416 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the way in which the pension of a person (details supplied) in County Mayo was calculated; and the reason it was reduced. [16549/01]

The person concerned is receiving a reduced rate old age non-contributory pension of £45.50 per week currently, based on her means of IR£56.00 a week derived from a British pension.

Following an increase in her British pension from April 2001, her old age non-contributory pension will be revised downwards to £43.50 per week from a current date. She will be notified accordingly, and will be given an opportunity to respond before a formal decision is made on her pension entitlement.
Under social welfare legislation decisions in relation to claims must be made by deciding officers and appeals officers. These officers are statutorily appointed and I have no role in regard to making such decisions.

Question:

417 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the total number of unemployment benefit claims made to his Department in each of the past three years from persons who work in school related activities for eight or nine months of the year but are out of work for some of the summer months; his views on whether it is reasonable to expect such persons to find work from an employer for a two month period before going back to school related work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16561/01]

Social welfare legislation provides that a person must satisfy the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking work in order to be entitled to unemployment benefit or assistance. The relevant legislation specifies the circumstances in which a person is, or is not, deemed to be available for and genuinely seeking employment.

In applying the legislation, deciding officers have regard to the availability of job vacancies in the locality and to the extent to which a claimant has sought to take advantage of existing labour market opportunities. Any person who fails to satisfy the deciding officer that he or she is available for full-time employment and genuinely seeking work is not entitled to an unemployment payment. Persons employed in the educational sector are treated in the same way and are expected to meet the same requirements as other claimants in that regard.

The number of persons whose stated employment was in the education sector and who qualified for unemployment payments in the months of June, July and August was 4,710 in 1999 and 2,947 in 2000. The number of such claims disallowed in the same period was 271 in 1999 and 566 in 2000.

Where a person is dissatisfied with a decision made by a deciding officer he or she may appeal this decision to the social welfare appeals office. Under social welfare legislation decisions in relation to claims must be made by deciding officers and appeals officers. These officers are statutorily appointed and I have no role in regard to making such decisions.

Question No. 418 answered with Question No. 415.

Brian O'Shea

Question:

419 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the proposals he has to extend eligibility for the free schemes to widows under the age of 66; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16599/01]

The free travel scheme is available to all people resident in the State aged 66 years or over. The other free schemes, including the free electricity or gas allowance, free telephone rental allowance and free television licence schemes, are generally available to people living in the State, aged 66 years or over, who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who pass a means test. They are also available to carers and people with disabilities under the age of 66 who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments.

Widows and widowers aged from 60 to 65 whose late spouses had been in receipt of the free schemes retain that entitlement to ensure that households do not suffer a loss of entitlements following the death of a spouse.

The Review of the Free Schemes, which was published by the Policy Institute, Trinity College, Dublin in April last year, noted that the free schemes share a common set of objectives in the area of social inclusion. These are defined as: to provide assistance to those living alone by targeting them with specific benefits providing both income and social inclusion gains; to support older people and people with disabilities in their wish to remain in the community as opposed to institutional care; and to support Government policy which seeks to acknowledge the value of older people in society.

The Review of the Free Schemes examined the many demands to extend the free schemes to other groups, including widows and widowers using social inclusion objectives as the criteria for decision. It considered that the schemes as currently constituted provide a basic package that ensures a limited standard of comfort or well-being to a particular targeted group, that is based on age or disability.

Widow/ers who are not living alone may experience social exclusion but they are not groups in need of community care support nor do they experience the same physical risks of isolation as older people and people with disabilities.

The review noted that, where payment levels are adequate, any extension of the free schemes must be based solely on increased social benefits that are over and above those which can be purchased by increased income.

Accordingly, the review concluded that the schemes should not be extended further to additional groups of people or to include other types of schemes. Overall the proposals in the review are being examined in the context of future budgets and available resources.

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