Vol. 559 No. 5
395 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if her attention has been drawn to the fact that a great many adult handicapped people have no PRSI record; and if her attention has further been drawn to the fact that this means families are unable to obtain State assistance following the death of such people to go towards the cost of paying funeral and burial expenses. [26538/02]
The bereavement grant is a payment based on PRSI contributions. Where there are insufficient PRSI contributions a person may receive assistance under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Under this arrangement, a health board may make a single payment to help meet once off exceptional expenditure, for example, for funeral expenses, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her weekly income. Any change to the bereavement grant scheme would have to be considered in a budgetary context.
