Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2022
654. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing core social protection payments to meet the minimum essential standard of living disaggregated by payment type for the period 27 September to 31 December 2022 and for the period from 21 January to 31 December 2023. [38100/22]
View answerThe Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) is an assessment, developed by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, of the minimum income needed to live and partake in the social and economic norms of everyday life for various household types. My Department has partly funded the excellent, detailed work of the Vincentian Partnership for a number of years, and I find it extremely useful.
One of the benefits of the work of the Vincentians is that it produces data on various household types, including the different costs that arise for households in rural and urban locations. In that way, it complements data produced from other analyses such as the Survey on Income and Living Conditions produced by the Central Statistics Office.
The work of the Vincentians also highlights issues that may be addressed with improvements in services. In this regard, improved services, such as the extension of GP visit cards for children and the affordable childcare scheme can result in significant reductions in the minimum income standards needed by households.
Bringing weekly social welfare rates in line with the MESL would entail:
- increasing the maximum personal working age rate to €260. There would be no proportionate increase in the current rate for Qualified Adults in order to meet the MESL. This increase would cost €1,745.8m in a full year;
- raising the Qualified Child Increase to €86 for children under 12, and €133 for children aged 12 and over. These increases would cost €480.1m and €493.2m respectively in a full year.
Older couple household type generally show income adequacy, as do single pensioners in urban areas. While it is not possible at this time to provide an estimate of providing an increase for single pensioners living in rural areas only, the estimated cost of an increase to bring the rates in line with the MESL for all pensioners in receipt of the Living Alone Allowance is €154m for recipients of non-contributory pensions and €668m for contributory pensions.
The total cost of these measures is €3.5 billion in a full year.
The estimated cost for 14 weeks is €953.4m.
The estimated cost of increasing working age payments to €260 is set out in the table below:
|
Scheme |
Full year cost |
14 week cost (27 September to 31 December 2022) |
|
Social Insurance Schemes |
||
|
Widow/er's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Con) Pension |
69.2 |
18.6 |
|
Deserted Wife's Benefit |
5.4 |
1.4 |
|
Invalidity Pension |
141.3 |
38.0 |
|
Partial Capacity Benefit |
5.0 |
1.3 |
|
Guardian's Payment (Contributory) |
4.3 |
1.2 |
|
Death Benefit Pension |
0.2 |
0.1 |
|
Disablement Pension |
5.2 |
1.4 |
|
Illness Benefit |
131.2 |
35.3 |
|
Injury Benefit |
1.9 |
0.5 |
|
Incapacity Supplement |
2.1 |
0.6 |
|
Jobseeker's Benefit |
112.7 |
30.3 |
|
Jobseeker's Benefit (Self-Employed) |
4.1 |
1.1 |
|
Carer's Benefit |
6.6 |
1.8 |
|
Health and Safety Benefit |
0.1 |
0.0 |
|
Maternity & Adoptive Benefit |
10.6 |
2.8 |
|
Paternity & Parent's Benefit |
3.0 |
0.8 |
|
Social Assistance Schemes |
||
|
Blind Person's Pension |
2.8 |
0.8 |
|
Widow/ers or Surviving Civil Partner's (Non-Con) Pension |
3.2 |
0.9 |
|
Deserted Wife's Allowance |
0.2 |
0.0 |
|
One-Parent Family Payment |
107.1 |
28.8 |
|
Carer's Allowance |
96.4 |
26.0 |
|
Half Rate Carer's Allowance |
24.3 |
6.6 |
|
Guardian's Payment (Non-Contributory) |
2.0 |
0.5 |
|
Jobseeker's Allowance Max Rate |
346.2 |
93.2 |
|
JA age 18 to 24 |
99.5 |
26.8 |
|
Disability Allowance |
424.9 |
114.4 |
|
Farm Assist |
12.7 |
3.4 |
|
Employment Support Schemes (BTWA & BTEA) |
35.7 |
9.6 |
|
Employment/Internship Schemes (CE, Tús, RSS etc.) |
50.1 |
13.5 |
|
Supplementary Welfare Allowance |
37.9 |
10.2 |
|
TOTAL |
1,745.8 |
470.0 |
*Rounding may affect totals
These costings are based on the estimated number of recipients in 2022 and are subject to change in light of emerging trends and subsequent revision of the estimated number of recipients.
