Written Answers Nos. 113-120
113. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will approve an application for rent supplement in respect of person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7611/13]
View answerThe information provided by the person concerned was not sufficient to allow the Department to carry out an assessment in full on his rent supplement application. A detailed letter clearly defining the required information has been sent to the person concerned. A decision can be made on his claim when the necessary information has been provided.
114. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will expedite an application for rent supplement in respect of persons (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7614/13]
View answerThe person concerned has made an application for rent supplement and has been requested to provide further information in order to process his claim in full. A decision will be made on his application when the information has been provided.
115. Deputy Eamonn Maloney asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will outline the calculation process which is used and the steps taken to determine the amount of weekly diet supplement for persons on gluten free diets who are in receipt of disability allowance and invalidity pension; if she will provide examples for both categories; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7617/13]
View answer134. Deputy Eamonn Maloney asked the Minister for Social Protection the calculation process which is used and the steps taken, to determine the amount of weekly diet supplement for persons on gluten free diets who are in receipt of disability allowance and invalidity pension including examples for both categories; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7700/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 115 and 134 together.
Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, a diet supplement may be paid to a person who is receiving a social welfare or health service executive payment where a special diet is prescribed as a result of a specified medical condition and they satisfy a means test.
The amount of diet supplement payable in individual cases is calculated by assessing one-third (single people) or one-sixth (couples joint weekly means) of the applicant's weekly income, excluding any amounts of benefit or assistance payable in respect of any child dependants against the cost of the relevant diet. The current costing applied to a gluten free diet is €68.43 per week for adults and €6.50 per week for children.
The last study into the cost of specialised diets was carried out in 2007. Accordingly when diet supplement payments for qualifying individuals are being calculated the social welfare rates for 2007 are used.
For example, a single person under age 65 on maximum rate invalidity benefit would receive a weekly payment of €4.66. This is calculated using the invalidity benefit rate of 2007 (€191.30) divided by three (€63.77) which is subtracted from the cost of the gluten free diet (€68.43).
A single person on maximum rate of disability allowance would receive €6.50 per week. This is calculated using the disability allowance rate of 2007 (€185.80) divided by three (€61.93) which is subtracted from the cost of the gluten free diet (€68.43).
The Department is currently undertaking a review of the diet supplement scheme.
Question No. 116 withdrawn.
117. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding a domiciliary care allowance in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7634/13]
View answerAn application for domiciliary care allowance (DCA) was received on the 28th July 2011. This application was referred to one of the Department’s Medical Assessors who found that the child was not medically eligible for the allowance. A letter issued on the 5th October 2011 refusing the allowance. The person concerned subsequently lodged an appeal against this decision and he was informed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office on 11th May 2012 that the appeal had been disallowed.
The decision/appeal process for this application is now complete. If the person concerned has additional information which was not made available to the deciding and appeals officers when they made their decisions, it is open to him to re-apply for the payment.
118. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding a domiciliary care allowance appeal in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [7639/13]
View answerThe Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 13th November 2012. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. When received, the case in question will be referred to an Appeals Officer who will make a summary decision on the appeal based on documentary evidence presented or, if required, hold an oral hearing.
The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions on social welfare entitlements.
119. Deputy Pat Deering asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide the number of households in receipt of more than €1,000 weekly in social welfare payments; the number of households in receipt of between €750 and €1,000; the number of households in receipt of between €500 and €750; the number of households in receipt of between €250 and €500; and the number of households in receipt of less than €250, excluding child benefit. [7649/13]
View answerThe Department delivers a wide range of payments at weekly, monthly, annual and other intervals across a range of claim processing systems which support the delivery of entitlements to people under individual social welfare schemes. In light of this, it is not possible to extract data in respect of total social welfare payments issued to individuals in the State. In relation to payments at family or household level, unless the social welfare status of other family members, such as siblings or parents, is directly relevant to the particular social welfare claim being made by an individual, details of social welfare payments made to other family members are not associated with their claim. For that reason, the information sought in relation to the level of payments made to families is not available.
While the average payment varies across the various schemes operated by the Department, the most typical rate paid to people of working age is €188 per week, while the most typical rate paid to people aged 66 years or more is €230.30 per week. In addition to their primary weekly payment, some people may also receive secondary benefits, such as Rent Supplement or Fuel Allowance if they also satisfy the conditions for receipt of those payments. The most typical rate of Rent Supplement is €100 per week, while Fuel Allowance is €20 per week from October to April.
The accompanying tabular statement sets out the average weekly value of the most common social welfare payments in 2012.
Table: Average values for weekly social welfare payments, Annual Average
Provisional Outturn in 2012
|
Scheme |
Average value (€weekly) |
|
State Pension (Contributory) |
243.47 |
|
State Pension (Transition) |
241.01 |
|
Widow(er)s Contributory Pension |
227.64 |
|
Invalidity Pension |
228.01 |
|
One Parent Family Payment |
224.06 |
|
State Pension (Non-Contributory) |
212.49 |
|
Illness Benefit |
206.71 |
|
Jobseeker’s Allowance |
201.06 |
|
Disability Allowance |
202.98 |
|
Carer’s Allowance |
188.55 |
|
Jobseeker’s Benefit |
176.23 |
Note: The data presented is scheme specific and does not take into account the fact that some individual recipients may be in receipt of more than one personal rate of a primary payment e.g. State Pension Contributory and a Half-Rate Carer’s Allowance (over 40% of all Carer’s Allowance recipients receive more than one primary personal payment per week). The weekly averages include arrears and increases/allowances other than fuel allowance.
120. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will give an update on the issue of death certificates for the Stardust fire families. [7657/13]
View answerAn tArd Chláraitheoir (Registrar General) is the person with statutory responsibility for the registration of deaths, I have made enquiries with him and I am informed that the position is as follows:
There were five male victims of the Stardust tragedy whose bodies could not, unfortunately, be identified at the time. However these five deaths were registered in 2007, on foot of Coroner’s certificates, following the exhumation of the bodies and DNA test analysis.
The Registrar General is not aware of any other victims whose deaths remain to be registered. Death certificates for any of the five victims can be obtained, in the normal way, from any civil registration office, from the General Register Office, or online at www.certificates.ie .
