Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 July 2019
2794. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the breakdown of the full-year cost of ensuring all weekly social welfare payments are brought into line with the minimum essential standard of living developed by an organisation (details supplied) in tabular form. [33676/19]
View answerThe Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) is an assessment, developed by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, of the minimum needed to live and partake in the social and economic norms of every day life of various household types. Bringing weekly working age social welfare rates in line with the MESL entails increasing the maximum personal rate to €245 and the Qualified Child Increase to €48.50 for children under 12 and €82.40 for children aged 12 and over. There would be no proportionate increase in the current rate for Qualified Adults in order to meet the MESL.
The costings sought by the Deputy are presented in the table below:
|
Scheme |
Full year cost of bringing rates in line with MESL |
|
€m |
|
|
Social Insurance Schemes |
|
|
Widow/er's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Con) Pension |
56.49 |
|
Deserted Wife's Benefit |
5.64 |
|
Death Benefit |
0.12 |
|
Invalidity Pension |
109.4 |
|
Partial Capacity Benefit |
2.89 |
|
Guardian's Payment (Contributory) |
3.6 |
|
Disablement Pension |
2.83 |
|
Illness Benefit |
110.72 |
|
Injury Benefit |
3.21 |
|
Incapacity Supplement |
1.79 |
|
Jobseeker's Benefit |
67.68 |
|
Carer's Benefit |
3.59 |
|
Health and Safety Benefit |
0.1 |
|
Maternity & Adoptive Benefit |
0.0 |
|
Paternity Benefit |
0.0 |
|
Total Social Insurance Schemes |
368.06 |
|
Scheme |
Full year cost of bringing rates in line with MESL |
|
€m |
|
|
Social Assistance Schemes |
|
|
Blind Pension |
2.64 |
|
Widow/ers or Surviving Civil Partner's (Non-Con) Pension |
3.01 |
|
Deserted Wife's Allowance |
0.21 |
|
One-Parent Family Payment |
85.88 |
|
Carer's Allowance |
68.81 |
|
Half Rate Carer's Allowance |
18.39 |
|
Guardian's Payment (Non-Contributory) |
1.69 |
|
Jobseeker's Allowance |
281.81 |
|
Jobseeker's Allowance - for those aged 18 to 24 years of age |
78.59 |
|
Jobseeker's Allowance - for those aged 25 years of age |
8.09 |
|
Disability Allowance |
310.24 |
|
Farm Assist |
14.31 |
|
Back to Education Allowance |
11.53 |
|
Back to Work Enterprise Allowance |
12.17 |
|
Community Employment |
21.15 |
|
TÚS |
6.25 |
|
Rural Social Scheme |
3.3 |
|
Jobs Initiative |
1.36 |
|
Supplementary Welfare Allowance |
34.8 |
|
Total Social Assistance Schemes |
964.63 |
|
Overall Total |
1,332.69 |
The MESL also requires increasing the Qualified Child Increases for under 12-year-olds from €34 per week to €48.50 per week, and from €37 per week to €82.40 per week for children aged 12 years and over. The estimated full year cost of these measures is €420.89 million.
Thus, the overall full year cost of bring Social Welfare payments in line with the MESL is €1.753 billion.
The costs shown above are on a full year basis and are based on the estimated number of recipients in 2019. It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients for 2020.
