Dan Boyle
Question:88 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to bring about the individualisation of pension payments. [24755/02]
Written Answers. - Pension Provisions.
From 1 October of this year, I have begun the phased implementation of individualisation of payments on an administrative basis, starting with claims to old age – contributory – and retirement pension. The arrangements now in place are in keeping with the recommendations in the report of the Working Group on Administrative Individualisation of Social Welfare Payments published in August.
The working group was established under the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness to produce proposals to progress the implementation of administrative individualisation of social welfare payments, that is, the provision of a direct payment to persons who are currently supported as qualified adults on their spouses' social welfare payment. The group, chaired by my Department, comprised representatives of the social partners and relevant Departments.
Under the arrangements introduced, the qualified adult allowance rate of pension may be paid directly to a spouse with the personal rate of pension being paid to the main beneficiary. The splitting of payments is on a consensual basis and both the applicant and their spouse are required to indicate their consent in this regard.
Both spouses are advised of the position and invited to avail of the split payment arrangements. Since implementing the change in October 2002 a total of 110 claimants – 8.5% – and their spouses, out of a potential total of some 1,300 cases received, have indicated their preference to have the qualified adult allowance paid directly to the spouse.
The existing changes are confined to new applicants to old age and retirement pensions. The extension of these arrangements to other categories is under active consideration and further progress will be made when the necessary administrative and other arrangements have been addressed.
Administrative individualisation does not involve any changes in the rules and conditions for entitlement, but rather comprises arrangements whereby payments, which include increases in respect of a qualified adult, are split between the parties involved. My Department has always provided for payments to be split in certain circumstances, for example, in cases of domestic difficulty where a spouse might otherwise have no other form of income. Administrative individualisation implies a more general application of this approach.
Administrative individualisation can be seen as an interim measure pending consideration of the more fundamental issue of full individualisation. Separately, there has been a trend towards a greater level of individualisation in the system through the extension of the scope of the social insurance system, thus enabling more people to accumulate their own individual insurance-based entitlements.