Written Answers Nos. 146 to 155
146. Deputy Jack Chambers asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will consider changing the layout of adoption certificates in order that they are more similar to birth certificates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29128/16]
View answerThe Adoption Act 2010 provides for two versions of certificates of entries to be issued by the General Register Office.
Section 87 provides for a copy of the entry and contains details that it is taken from the Adopted Children Register.
Section 89 of the Act provides for an abridged certificate of entry the format of which is set out by regulations made by the Minister for Social Protection in consultation with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.
The Adoption Act 2010 (Abridged Certificate) Regulations 2011 were made by the Minister for Social Protection in 2011. The format and content of the certificate to be issued in accordance with these regulations are set out in the schedule to the Regulations. The schedule requires that the certificate be headed “Birth Certificate” and that nothing contained in the certificate discloses that the person to whom the certificate refers has been adopted. The abridged certificate is designed to be as indistinguishable as possible from a birth certificate.
Prior to the enactment of the Adoption Act 2010, adopted persons and their families had long felt that they were being discriminated against under the old legislation, as there was no provision for the issue of such a certificate.
Both versions of the certificates are available on application to the General Register Office.
147. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will consider increasing the living alone allowance in budget 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29160/16]
View answerThe Living Alone Allowance is an additional payment of €9.00 per week made to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments, including State pensions, and who are living alone. It is also available to people who are less than 66 years of age, living alone and in receipt of disability allowance, invalidity pension, incapacity supplement or blind pension. Each €1 increase in the living alone allowance would cost €10.2 million in a full year.
The appropriate levels of weekly social welfare rates of payment, including any increases payable such as the living alone allowance, is being considered in the context of the forthcoming Budget which will be announced on Tuesday, October 11th.
148. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will increase the income threshold for the non-contributory State pension, which has not been increased in a number of years as the cut off point is leaving a large number of pensioners without a State pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29161/16]
View answerState pensions account for the single largest block of social welfare expenditure. This year, my Department will spend almost €7 billion on pensions, with the State Pension Non-Contributory (SPNC) accounting for just over €950 million of this expenditure.
Eligibility for SNPC is means tested and takes into account the income and assets of both the claimant and his or her spouse or partner, where applicable. Capital, property (excluding a person's home), savings and investments, occupational pension, a British or other foreign pension, are assessed as capital and a formula is then used to assess the weekly means from capital. The weekly rate payable depends on the total weekly means of the person or couple. The first €30 of means is disregarded for State Pension Non-Contributory.
It is not clear which income thresholds that the Deputy is referring to in this question. Any changes to the means test for the SPNC would have to be considered in a budgetary context.
149. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Social Protection his plans to tackle unemployment among persons with disabilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22543/16]
View answerThe Government’s commitments to facilitating increased participation in employment for people with disabilities are reflected in the Comprehensive Employment Strategy (CES) for People with Disabilities.
The Department of Social Protection provides a wide range of work related supports for people with disabilities. It should be noted that the employment supports are of a voluntary nature and are tailored to individual circumstances and a person’s capacity to engage with education, training or job-search programmes.
One of the principal supports is the EmployAbility service, which provides job coach support to people with disabilities in accessing jobs in the open labour market. Other supports include the provision of employment subsidies through the Wage Subsidy Scheme, workplace adaptation grants and specialist training courses that are specially designed for people with disabilities. Funding is also provided to AHEAD (Association for Higher Education Access and Disability) for the Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) programme, an employment placement programme for graduates with disabilities. For those in receipt of illness benefit for a minimum of 6 months or who are in receipt of invalidity pension and who acknowledge, on a voluntary basis, that they may have capacity to undertake some level of employment, the Department’s partial capacity benefit scheme is available to assist them to return to the workplace.
These supports, which are estimated to cost almost €44 million in 2016, play an important role in supporting increased participation in the labour force by people with disabilities.
Disability allowance (DA) recipients who, on a voluntary basis, wish to take up rehabilitative employment may avail of the DA employment disregard, which allows them to take up work and earn up to €120 per week without their social welfare payment being affected. Earnings of between €121 and €350 per week are assessed at 50% for means test purposes.
The measures contained in the strategy seek to address any barriers to employment and improve pathways to work, with the impact on employment building up over time. Among the DSP commitments contained in the strategy is the setting up of an interdepartmental group, under an independent chair, to review and make recommendations on making work pay for people with disabilities through the examination of the complex interactions between the benefit system, the additional costs associated with work for people with disabilities and net income earnings from employment.
As part of the CES, the Department is progressively rolling out its full INTREO service to people with disabilities who wish to avail of the service on a voluntary basis. In such cases, people with disabilities who present at an INTREO Centre will be offered an interview by an employment support officer with a view to agreeing a suitable action plan. In addition, relevant officers in INTREO Centres are being trained to enable them to interact effectively with people with disabilities. To date, over 60 employment support officers have received this training.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
150. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Social Protection his views on the quality of life issues facing young persons that have come to light from the Central Statistics Office data 2013. [22495/16]
View answerSince the crisis, there has been widespread agreement on the need for broader measures of social well-being that go beyond income and economic growth. My Department recently published exploratory research on measuring Quality of Life (QoL) to inform this debate. The analysis by the ESRI is based on data from the CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions in 2013.
The researchers defined someone as having a QoL problem if they experience problems on 3 or more of 11 indicators on income poverty, deprivation; financial strain; health problems; mental distress; housing crowding and quality problems; neighbourhood problems; lack of social support; institutional mistrust; and lack of safety. They found that in 2013 just over a quarter of adults experienced multiple QoL problems.
The research shows that, in line with national poverty and deprivation measures, older people experience lower levels of QoL deficits than adults under 30. Young adults are 1.8 times more likely to experience QoL problems than older people. For younger adults crowded accommodation, housing quality problems, deprivation and financial strain are most important. In contrast, lack of safety, health and neighbourhood problems are more important to older people.
The paper highlights the varied challenges facing adults at different stages of their life-course and the importance of multidimensional measures that look beyond peoples’ income to a more holistic QoL perspective – to their health, housing, social interactions, living environment and personal well-being. The updated national action plan for social inclusion identifies a wide range of targeted actions and interventions to achieve the overall objective of reducing poverty and social exclusion.
The ESRI is undertaking further research on poverty trends and QoL across the life-course, focusing on social risk groups. My Department will discuss the findings and policy implications arising from this research at a national conference in November.
152. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 389 of 27 September 2016, if he will consider extending the eligibility criteria for fuel allowance to include those in receipt of social protection payments over 70 years of age; if he will discuss this with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in advance of budget 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29040/16]
View answerThe fuel allowance is a payment of €22.50 per week for 26 weeks from October to April, to low income households. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. The allowance represents a contribution towards the energy costs of a household. It is not intended to meet those costs in full. Only one allowance is paid per household. Qualifying payments for fuel allowance include Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s (Contributory or Non-Contributory) Pension, and State Pension (Contributory or Non-Contributory).
The fuel allowance payment is means tested to ensure it is targeted at those who are more vulnerable to energy poverty, including those reliant on social protection payments for longer periods and who are unlikely to have additional resources of their own. An applicant and members of his/her household may have a combined assessable income of up to €100.00 a week above the appropriate rate of State Pension Contributory (€233.30) and qualify for a payment.
The weekly income limits are as follows:
1.-€333.30 for a single person under 80 years (€100 + €233.30);
2.-€488.80 for a couple where the qualified spouse / civil partner / cohabitant is under 66 years (€100 + €233.30 + €155.50 being the value of the increase for a qualified adult aged under 66);
3.-€542.30 for a couple where the qualified spouse / civil partner / cohabitant is over 66 years (€100 + €233.30 + €209.00 being the value of the increase for a qualified adult aged over 66).
In the case of applicants over 80 years of age, an extra allowance of €10.00 may be applied to the appropriate Social Welfare rate.
The maximum disregard available for any household is €542.30.
Any plans to change the eligibility for fuel allowance to allow all people aged over 70 to automatically qualify for fuel would have significant cost implications.
The appropriate levels of welfare support including eligibility for fuel allowance will be considered by the Government in the coming days, with due regard to the available resources. The outcome of this process will be announced on Budget Day.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
154. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 407 and 414 of 27 September 2016, if he will provide the number of landlords providing between four and ten lettings; the number of landlords providing between 11 and 20 lettings; the number of landlords providing between 21 and 30 lettings; the number of landlords providing between 31 and 40 lettings; and the number of landlords providing between 41 and 50 lettings, in tabular form. [29066/16]
View answerThe rent supplement scheme is currently supporting some 50,700 recipients for which the Government has provided €267 million for in 2016.
Under the legislative provisions governing rent supplement, the Department’s relationship is with the tenant and there is no direct relationship between the landlord and the Department in the administration of the scheme.
The most recent analysis, undertaken in June 2016, shows that there are approximately 39,200 landlords providing accommodation to rent supplement customers, summary details are as follows;
- 32,600 landlords, 83% of total landlords, have only one property let under the scheme;
- 5,100 landlords, 13% of total landlords, have either two or three properties let under the scheme,
- 1,500 landlords, 4% of total landlords, provide four or more lettings under the scheme. Of this total, there are approximately 200 landlords with more than ten properties let under on the scheme.
The detailed information requested in relation to landlord numbers and multiple lettings under the scheme is provided in the table.
Landlords with multiple lettings under the Rent Supplement Scheme – June 2016.
|
Category |
Number of Landlords |
|
1 Property Only |
32,628 |
|
2 Properties Only |
3,831 |
|
3 Properties Only |
1,235 |
|
At least 4 properties, no more than 10 |
1,342 |
|
At least 11 properties, no more than 20 |
137 |
|
At least 21 properties, no more than 30 |
33 |
|
At least 31 properties, no more than 40 |
10 |
|
At least 41 properties, no more than 50 |
5 |
|
51 Properties or more |
9 |
|
Total |
39,230 |
155. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Social Protection his Department's plans to meet the needs of the surviving members of the Carrickmines fire disaster; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29104/16]
View answerAt the time of the Carrickmines tragedy, this Department ensured continuity of income to the surviving families concerned. The Department ensured that those customers affected received financial assistance with unforeseen and exceptional expenses arising from the tragedy. The Department assisted towards the provision of clothing/household items and also assisted with funeral expenses. The Department is continuing to provide supplementary welfare allowances where needed.
The services of the Department remain available to the persons concerned and these services may be accessed through the Intreo Centre, Cumberland Street, Dun Laoghaire for customers residing in its catchment area or the Intreo Centre, The Cualann Centre, Main Street, Bray, Co Wicklow for customers residing in Wicklow.
I hope that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
