Written Answers Nos. 70 - 76
70. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection how provision can be made to address any issues arising from cutbacks forced upon her Department arising from the memorandum of understanding she inherited, with particular reference to families, adults and children with special needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33632/15]
View answer72. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the extent to which she has examined the overall social welfare budget, with a view to identifying those areas and persons whose payments were most severely impacted on during the economic downturn; the extent to which she expects to be in a position to address these issues in future years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33634/15]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 70 and 72 together.
Throughout the crisis, this Government protected core weekly welfare rates and maintained a very strong social welfare safety net. ESRI research has showed that, unlike the position in other countries, income inequality has fallen in Ireland in recent years, largely because of the overall maintenance of the welfare system.
Social transfers play a crucial role in redistributing resources to those most in need. In 2013 (the most recent data available), social transfers (excluding pensions) reduced the at-risk-of poverty rate from 38.4 per cent to 15.2 per cent, thereby lifting almost a quarter of the Irish population out of income poverty. This represents a poverty reduction effect of 60.4%. Ireland is the best performing EU country in reducing poverty through social transfers (excluding pensions).
Social impact assessment is an evidence-based methodology to estimate the likely distributive effects of policy proposals on poverty and social inequality, including the impact on family types, life cycle groups and gender.
The Department published integrated social impact assessments of Budgets 2013, 2014 and 2015 (using the ESRI SWITCH model) which included the main welfare and tax measures. The analysis for 2015 found that, for the first time since the recession, budgetary policy resulted in an increase in average household incomes of 0.7 per cent (equivalent of €6 per week). The distributive impact varied according to the component measures. Welfare increases favoured lower income households, while tax reductions were more beneficial to middle and higher income groups.
One of the key objectives of Budget 2015 was to assist unemployed families to return to work.
I introduced the new Back to Work Family Dividend scheme, which enables long-term unemployed jobseekers with children who leave welfare to return to work to retain the child-related portion of their social welfare payment on a tapered basis over two years. This includes One Parent Family Payment recipients who similarly go back into the workforce.
The Dividend will help increase the pace of the progress we are making in helping people back to work, thereby reducing poverty. It will help boost the recovery, reduce welfare expenditure in the long-run, and, most importantly, help the families in question to build a better financial future for themselves.
The Budget also provided for the expansion of JobsPlus to provide subsidies to employers to recruit and employ an additional 3,000 long-term unemployed jobseekers. This scheme has proven to be particularly successful with the longer-term unemployed (i.e. unemployed for more than two years.)
I was also pleased to be in the position to increase Child Benefit from €130 to €135 per month, which will benefit over 611,000 households with children. This helps all families with children but also has the additional benefit for unemployed families in that it is work neutral as it is retained in full when they return to the workforce.
I also announced a number of welfare initiatives which would benefit pensioners, carers and people with disabilities who are in receipt of a welfare payment. These initiatives included the re-introduction of a Christmas Bonus and an increase in the Living Alone Allowance.
The Christmas Bonus was abolished by the previous Government in 2009. I was pleased to be in the position to partially restore the Bonus last year. A bonus of 25% was paid in the first week of December to long-term welfare recipients including all pensioners, people with disabilities, carers and long-term jobseekers at a cost of €65 million in recognition of the position of vulnerable households.
I also increased the Living Alone Allowance by €1.30 per week from January, bringing the rate up from €7.70 to €9 for pensioners and people with disabilities. The Living Alone Allowance is a payment made to pensioners and people with disabilities who live alone and was last increased in 1996.
Looking ahead to Budget 2016, the Government’s Spring Statement, published last April, stated that “On the basis of present estimates, Budget 2016 will include a package within the range of €1.2 billion to €1.5 billion, to invest in services, support employment and boost growth potential while still maintaining fiscal prudence.”
The Government has decided that this ‘fiscal space’ will be split evenly between taxes and expenditure. The expenditure component, of up to €750 million, will have to address public sector pay demands, as well as capital and current expenditure. It is within this context that deliberations for Budget 2016 will be considered.
I held my annual Pre-Budget Forum on 3 July, during which I listened to the views and recommendations of almost 40 community and voluntary groups in relation to the their priorities for the upcoming Budget. The National Economic Dialogue held later that month was also a valuable contribution to the overall budgetary process. The scale and composition of the 2016 DSP Budget package is currently under consideration and will be announced on October 13.
71. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the extent, if any, to which she is aware of any hardship to lone parents, arising from changes in the one-parent family payment, with particular reference to situations where the payment subsequently fell short of the previous entitlement; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33633/15]
View answerThe primary goal of the reform to the one-parent family payment scheme is to maximise the opportunities for lone parents to enter into and increase employment by providing them with enhanced access to the wide range of education, training and employment supports that make up the Department’s Intreo services.
Of the 25,500 customers exited the one-parent family payment scheme on 2 July, 2015, approximately 12,000 incurred no change in their income.
Approximately 2,400 were new family income supplement recipients and saw an increase in their income. These new recipients are also eligible for the back to work family dividend.
The back to work family dividend allows parents to retain the child proportion of their former core social welfare payment, which equals €29.80 per week per child, for two years, with full entitlement in the first year and 50% entitlement in the second year. This equates to €1,550 per child in the first year and €775 per child in the second year.
There are currently 8,800 customers in receipt of the back to work family dividend, of which over 6,500 are former one-parent family payment recipients.
The Department will continue to actively promote the Dividend to lone parents who have transitioned off the OFP scheme.
Approximately 4,900 of the jobseeker’s transitional payment cohort experienced a reduction in their income and, approximately 5,700 of the family income supplement recipients experienced a reduction in their income. However, this cohort is now eligible for the back to work family dividend.
In cases where customers transitioned to the family income supplement scheme and who subsequently experienced a reduction in their income, the Department contacted these customers and invited them to attend a one-to-one meeting with a designated Case Officer in order to discuss their options.
The Department will continue to work with these customers in order to assist them in any way possible.
Lone parents who are now on jobseeker’s allowance or the jobseeker’s transitional payment and who experienced an income reduction are in the process of being invited to attend a one to one engagement with a Case Officer to discuss their options and the wide variety of supports the Department can provide them.
73. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection whether the extent of the negative impact of the cessation of mortgage interest relief on particular families has been examined; whether anything can be done to support these families, where loss of the family home is imminent through no fault of the family; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33635/15]
View answerThe administration of the Mortgage Interest Relief scheme is a matter for the Revenue Commissioners and any changes to current arrangements is a matter for the Minister for Finance.
The Government’s strategy to assist those in mortgage difficulty is built around the following measures, as recommended in the 2011 Interdepartmental Mortgage Arrears Working Group (Keane Group), in four main distinct areas:
- Lenders providing sustainable and durable resolution options to their borrower;
- A social housing response sponsored by local authorities;
- Comprehensive advice to borrowers; and
- Personal Insolvency Reform.
Government affirms its support for homeowners facing difficulties in meeting their mortgage repayments and is satisfied that the most appropriate way in which customers experiencing mortgage difficulties can be supported is through on-going engagement with their lender to explore sustainable solutions.
An enhanced role of the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) as part of the Government’s Mortgage Arrears package announced in May is actively being progressed through increased dissemination of information, advice and assistance to mortgage holders through all stages of the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process (MARP) and beyond.
The establishment of a Dedicated Mortgage Arrears MABS service, focusing on post- Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process borrowers is well underway. Special advisors in the Dedicated Mortgage Arrears MABS services will focus on post- MARP cases, assisting mortgage holders in assessing the extent to which the option on offer from the lender is the best and most sustainable option, and where required, negotiate with the lender.
Sixteen Dedicated Mortgage Arrears MABS offices are finalising arrangements for the provision of this service over the coming weeks, with plans on target to provide nationwide coverage by year end.
In addition, two pilot projects are underway comprising a Public Personal Insolvency Practitioner in Waterford MABS and the provision of bankruptcy advice in Cork MABS, to test the usefulness and applicability of such supports in MABS services and where the outcomes warrant expansion, to develop models capable of replication in other MABS services.
Together with the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI), a national network of Court Mentors is being established by MABS following successful completion of pilots at 6 locations - Dublin, Cavan, Wexford, Trim, Castlebar and Roscommon.
The Court Mentors will attend Court with clients and offer support and advice on Court proceedings, as well as direct referral back to MABS where a case is adjourned.
Citizens Information Board (CIB) and MABS has worked with the Courts Service and the ISI on the preparation of a Court Guide, to be available shortly.
The MABS Helpline will implement an additional layer of assessment, in order to channel debtors to the most relevant source of help, based on the nature and urgency of their situation.
The Citizens Information Board’s microsite www.keepingyourhome.ie will be re-designed and kept up to date. The MABS website is updated to detail the full range of supports and services available.
There are currently approximately 4,100 mortgage interest supplement recipients. The scheme was discontinued for new applicants from 1 January 2014, with customers availing of this support prior to 1st January 2014 retaining entitlement until the overall cessation of scheme on 1st January 2018. The continued payment of mortgage interest supplement, the purpose of which was to provide short-term support to meet mortgage interest repayments, does little to assist recipients in improving the long term difficulty in addressing their mortgage problem. It is expected that during this four year period, the existing customers, will exit the scheme through: sustainable solutions being put in place with their lenders; securing employment; or exit strategies sponsored by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, such as the Mortgage to Rent Scheme.
75. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the average length of time taken to determine all social welfare payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33637/15]
View answerA breakdown by scheme of the average time to award claims during August 2015 (where available) is detailed in the tabular statement below.
Note that the processing times shown in the table incorporate the impact of the appeals process.
Average Time to Award Claims August 2015
|
Scheme |
Average Time to Award Claims (Weeks) |
|
Jobseekers Benefit |
3 |
|
Jobseekers Allowance |
3 |
|
One-Parent Family Payment |
9 |
|
State Pension Contributory (Domestic) |
4 |
|
Widow, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s Contributory Pension |
2 |
|
State Pension Non-Contributory |
20 |
|
Household Benefits |
3 |
|
Free Travel |
3 |
|
Supplementary Welfare Allowance |
1 |
|
Family Income Supplement (New Claims) |
3 |
|
Child Benefit (Domestic and FRA) |
2 |
|
Child Benefit (EU regulation) |
29 |
|
Carer's Allowance* |
35 |
|
Disability Allowance* |
32 |
|
Domiciliary Care Allowance |
15 |
|
Invalidity Pension* |
21 |
|
Illness Benefit |
1 |
* The average time to award state pension non-contributory, disability allowance, carers' allowance and invalidity pension applications at the end of August was 20, 32, 35 and 21 weeks respectively. New applications for state pension non-contributory are currently decided upon inside 14.5 weeks, disability allowance are currently decided upon inside 9.7 weeks, carer’s allowance are currently decided upon inside 16.5 weeks on average and invalidity pension claims are currently decided upon within 3.8 weeks of receipt. The overall average processing times reflect appeals in the system.
76. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the extent to which payment of jobseeker's allowance or basic social welfare has been made available in each of the past five years to date in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare whose payments were suspended during a long period of illness, resulting in that person's local authority rent remaining unpaid, further resulting in a serious danger of loss of the family home; whether an exceptional needs payment can be granted in this case, given that the courts are likely to grant repossession, which will leave the family homeless; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33638/15]
View answerThe person concerned did not receive a jobseeker's allowance payment within the last five years. The client made a claim for jobseeker’s allowance on 14 February 2013, but the person concerned did not provide the required documentation and this application lapsed.
The person concerned was paid supplementary welfare allowance for the following dates:
25 November, 2010 - 9 December, 2010
5 July, 2012 - 31 October, 2012
15 January, 2013 - 16 April, 2014
The person concerned is currently in receipt of a basic supplementary welfare allowance payment since 18 June, 2015, pending the outcome of a disability allowance decision. The person concerned left Ireland in May, 2014 to return to Nigeria for medical and spiritual treatment, returning to Ireland in May, 2015. The person concerned was not entitled to supplementary welfare allowance while out of the country. It is open to the person concerned to make an application for an exceptional needs payment to his local community welfare service.
