Vol. 550 No. 4
518 Mr. McDowell asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the cost, as estimated by his Department, in 2002 terms, of the commitment contained in the recently published National Anti-Poverty Strategy, of increasing the lowest social welfare payments to ?150 per week. [8499/02]
The income adequacy target included in the revised National Anti-Poverty Strategy is "to achieve a rate of €150 per week in 2002 terms for the lowest rates of social welfare to be met by 2007 and the appropriate equivalence level of basic child income support (i.e. child benefit and child dependant allowances combined) to be set at 33%-35% of the minimum adult social welfare payment rate."
It is estimated that the cost, in 2002 terms, of implementing this target is of the order of €1.55 billion in respect of weekly welfare rates. This calculation is based on an assumption that the lowest rates of payment are increased to €150 with equivalent monetary increases for all other schemes.
In addition, it is estimated that the additional costs in terms of child income support would lie between €407 million and €1.24 billion, depending on how that is delivered, for example, through child dependant allowances alone, through child benefit alone or a combination of both.
