Vol. 549 No. 3
49 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the progress made to date in the review of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme; when it is expected that the report will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6609/02]
70 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the issues which have been identified as warranting attention arising from the review of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6287/02]
I propose taking Questions Nos. 49 and 70 together.
The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is administered on my Department's behalf by the community welfare service in the health boards. The scheme is currently being reviewed by an interdepartmental working group chaired by my Department as part of my Department's series of expenditure reviews.
The current review is a fundamental appraisal of the scheme aimed primarily at improving customer service and administrative efficiency. All aspects of the scheme are being examined. The review also provides an opportunity to re-focus the scheme and the health boards' community welfare service of which it is part to become more effective in tackling poverty and social exclusion.
The first stage of the review procedure involved an examination of the objectives of the scheme and included a widespread consultation process. This resulted in 145 submissions being received by the group. The issues raised in these submissions were read, summarised and grouped under 18 relevant themes by the working group members.
Within these 18 themes over 700 different issues were raised. The points raised ranged from six comments on the co-ordination of welfare services to over 100 comments on the involvement of community welfare officers, CWOs, in dealing with housing issues. There were almost 100 comments each on the future direction for the community welfare service and the role of the community welfare officer. The particular points made included: there should be more integration of social services; too much CWO time is spent on routine payment processing; and too much CWO time is spent dealing with long-term needs, including housing supplements, which are inappropriate to a safety net scheme. A number of submissions made the point that these activities hamper the service in taking a leading role in tackling poverty and social exclusion at community level. A tabular statement setting out the 18 themes and showing the number of issues raised under each theme follows.
The working group propose establishing sub-groups to examine these issues in detail. Superintendent and community welfare officers as well as staff in my Department were invited to nominate themselves for such sub-groups if they wished.
|
Theme |
Number of issues |
|
|
1. |
Supplementary welfare allowance, SWA, review process |
11 |
|
2. |
Community Welfare Service – future direction for SWA |
97 |
|
3. |
Community Welfare Service – human resources, industrial relations and related issues |
27 |
|
4. |
Community Welfare Officers – nature of work, public perception and future development |
96 |
|
5. |
Administration and service delivery |
69 |
|
6. |
Appeals |
22 |
|
7. |
Co-ordination of welfare services |
6 |
|
8. |
Housing – rent and mortgage interest supplements |
54 |
|
9. |
Housing – policy and general issues |
64 |
|
10. |
Asylum seekers |
58 |
|
11. |
Rates of payment |
47 |
|
12. |
Community welfare premises |
8 |
|
13. |
Information |
36 |
|
14. |
Exceptional needs payments |
53 |
|
15. |
Diet supplements |
13 |
|
16. |
Eligibility conditions |
26 |
|
17. |
Means-testing – equity |
56 |
|
18. |
Miscellaneous |
23 |
The living alone allowance is an additional payment of €7.70 per week to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare-type payments and who reside alone. Any proposals to increase the allowance could only be considered in a budgetary context.
However, the overall policy being followed in relation to support for our older people has been to commit resources to improving the personal pension rates rather than supplementary payments such as the living alone allowance. This is the most effective way of ensuring that the position of all our pensioners is improved.
Our Action Programme for the Millennium set a target old age pension rate of €126.97 by 2002. In the review of this programme, the Government committed to the early achievement of the €126.97 rate and, furthermore, extended it to other social welfare pensions. This target was achieved one year ahead of schedule in the case of old age contributory pension and widow's contributory pension and was achieved in this year's budget for old age non-contributory pension.
The improvements announced in budget 2002 saw the old age contributory pension increase to €147.30 per week and the old age non-contributory pension increase to €134 per week. Overall increases in old age pension rates since the Government came into office amount to between 37% and 49%.
Other improvements made in the area of pensions include changes in the assessment of capital under the means tests for non-contributory payments. There have also been significant improvements in the area of the free schemes.
Old people will remain one of the major priorities for the Government and the most effective way of improving their position will be kept under review in the context of future budgets.
