Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 October 2020
287. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Social Protection her plans to increase the basic rate of the old age pension or provide a special Covid-19 top up for the duration of the pandemic in view of the additional costs associated with the Covid-19 pandemic such as purchasing personal protective equipment, PPE. [30020/20]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware, the Government has been seeking to implement and operate supports during the COVID-19 emergency that are targeted where most needed to ensure continued economic activity and reduce the risk of poverty.
The State Pension is the bedrock of the pension system in Ireland. It is extremely effective at ensuring that our pensioners do not experience poverty. The Government is committed to ensuring that this remains the case. This Government is also acutely conscious of the need to consider the sustainability of the State’s finances. Accordingly, any changes to State Pension payment rates would need to be considered in the overall policy and budgetary context.
Recipients of State pension payments may already have access to a range of additional supports, subject to satisfying eligibility conditions. These supports include the living alone increase, household benefits, telephone support allowance, free travel and fuel allowance. In this context, in March of this year, as part of Government COVID-19 response measures, the Fuel Allowance scheme was extended by four weeks until Friday, 8th May 2020. At a cost of €31.5 million, the extension of the fuel season for over 352,000 existing eligible households was put in place, to ensure that the most vulnerable groups, particularly older people in receipt of State pensions, were provided with additional targeted financial supports. This extension meant that the 2019/2020 Fuel Season ran to the latest end date of any season in the last 30 years.
The Deputy will be aware that my Department also operates both Exceptional and Urgent Needs Payments as part of the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme for people of any age, who have an exceptional or urgent need which they cannot meet from their own resources. Payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case. The scheme is administered by the Community Welfare Service of the Department.
While I fully understand that these are difficult times for many people, any further economic measures can only be considered while taking account of the overall budgetary context and the availability of financial resources.
I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.
