The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered by the health boards, provides for the payment of a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of rent or mortgage interest to any person in the State whose means are insufficient to meet his or her needs.
Rent and mortgage interest supplements are subject to a means test and are normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent or mortgage interest, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to his or her family circumstances, less a minimum contribution which recipients are required to pay from their own resources.
When last set in 1994, the rate of the contribution represented approximately 10% of the minimum social welfare weekly payment rate. In November, I announced my intention to restore the minimum contribution to an equivalent level.
In this regard I introduced regulations which provided for an increase in the minimum contribution from €7.62 to €12 per week which represents 9.6% of the current minimum social welfare weekly payment rate. Some 50,000 households in receipt of rent and mortgage interest supplement payments are affected by this measure.
Any increase in the level of the minimum contribution has an impact on the net income of people affected. The recent increase, however, merely restores the relationship which existed previously and I am satisfied that this relationship is reasonable.
In addition, this year's budget provided for an increase from €10 to €23 in the amount of income from a social welfare pension that can be disregarded in the rent supplement means test for pensioners aged 65 or over. In some cases this increased disregard is more than sufficient to cover the increase in the income levels of many older people on pensions, which will result in people actually receiving a higher rate of supplement as well as maintaining their budgetary increases.
The budget and Estimates process has regard for poverty proofing under the national antipoverty strategy.