Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:133 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the changes he envisages making to the rules governing sickness and disability benefits. [23369/04]
View answerWednesday, 6 October 2004
Questions (32, 33)
Written answers
My Department operates a number of schemes which provide income support to persons who are unfit to work because of illness or who are substantially handicapped from doing work which would otherwise be suitable for a person of that age, experience and qualifications. The rules determining eligibility for these benefits is set down in the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 1993 and subsequent amending acts. Detailed rules which elaborate on primary legislation are also set out in regulations and guidelines.
Significant improvements have been made in these supports in recent years. For example, cover for social insurance payments, including illness and disability payments, has been extended to additional groups of workers, including part-time workers and public servants; a range of improvements have been introduced in the operation of the means test for the disability allowance and blind person's pension schemes, including substantial increases in the amount of earnings from rehabilitative employment and self-employment which can be disregarded for means test purposes — currently €120 a week — and major improvements in the method of assessing capital, with the first €12,697 being disregarded; the disqualification for disability allowance purposes for those in full-time residential care has been progressively relaxed; and the range of employment supports available to people in receipt of illness and disability payments has been significantly strengthened and enhanced.
Changes to the conditions determining eligibility for these schemes are normally made in the context of the annual budget, subject to priorities and available resources. I will be considering what improvements in terms of access to income and employment support can be made in the context of the forthcoming budget.
Bernard J. Durkan
Question:134 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of persons who have had their entitlements reduced, curtailed, terminated or otherwise deemed ineligible as a result of the implementation of the 2004 budgetary cuts; if expenditure to date under the headings affected by such cuts is in line with expectations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23325/04]
View answerThe measures introduced in the context of the 2004 Estimates included changes to the back to education allowance, one parent family payment, certain child dependant allowances, changes in the conditions of entitlement to short-term social insurance payments and changes in the supplementary welfare allowance scheme.
It is not possible to quantify precisely the numbers affected by the measures in question in that where disallowances or reduced entitlements occur, the specific reasons for such are not recorded on payment systems in a way which facilitates production of the information requested.
While data is regularly available on the numbers in receipt of all payments, simple comparisons of such numbers would not reliably indicate the number of persons affected by the measures.
The number in receipt of any particular scheme can and does fluctuate for a wide variety of reasons such as, for example, seasonal factors in the case of unemployment.
Furthermore, in many instances, the individuals who may have been affected by a particular measure could have availed of alternative support. Again, it is not possible to distinguish those particular cases from those who, for other reasons, avail of these alternative supports over the same period.
The total overall projected expenditure in 2004 on the schemes affected by the measures is, however, broadly in line with expectations.
As my predecessor explained to the House, these measures produced savings which, in turn, were directly reinvested in a substantial 2004 budget package of €630 million. A budget package of this magnitude enabled the provision of increases well ahead of inflation for all social welfare recipients of weekly payments as well as significant general improvements in social welfare provision.