Cathal Crowe
Question:327. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Social Protection the main policy achievements of her Department since 27 June 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31869/23]
View answerThursday, 29 June 2023
Questions (327)
Written answers
My Department has delivered significant achievements since June 2020. At that time, the country was in the middle of the public health crisis caused by Covid-19 and my Department introduced the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and Covid-Illness Enhanced Benefit. Some 29.7 million PUP payments issued at a cost of over €9.2 billion, while 880,000 people received payment under the scheme.
The Social Protection Budget for 2023 was the largest in the history of the State. Budget 2023 included a €12 increase in the maximum rate of all core weekly payments, e.g., pensioners, widows(ers), lone parents, jobseekers, carers, and people with disabilities, with a €2 increase in payments in respect of children of social welfare recipients. The Working Family Payment thresholds increased by €40 per week for all family sizes, while there is an increase of €20.50 in the monthly rate of Domiciliary Care Allowance bringing the payment to €330 per month.
Over the past year there was a significant set of lump sum payments in 2022 aimed at providing additional and immediate support to social welfare recipients to deal with the cost of living. These payments include, an additional €400 for Fuel Allowance recipients, an additional €200 for recipients of the Living Alone Allowance, an additional €500 for Working Family Payment recipients, and an additional €500 payment for carers and people with disabilities. Many other Social Welfare recipients received an Autumn bonus, a Christmas bonus and a Spring bonus this year.
More recent or forthcoming measures include:
• a €100 lump sum payment in respect of every child for whom Child Benefit is paid,
• an additional €100 payment will also be paid this year in respect of each child for whom the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance is paid, and
• an extension of the Hot School Meals programme to all DEIS primary schools from September, benefiting 64,500 children.
Child maintenance payments will be disregarded in the means test for social welfare payments; the "efforts to seek maintenance" requirement will also be removed from One-Parent Family Payment and Jobseeker's Transitional Payment; and the liable relative provisions will be discontinued. These are significant policy changes which will be of great benefit to lone parents.
In February 2021, in line with the Programme for Government commitment, a Benefit Payment for 65-year-olds was introduced. This provides a benefit payment, based on an individual’s PRSI record, for employed or self-employed people who are aged between 65 and 66 and who were required to or chose to retire at 65 years.
Also in 2021, my Department undertook a policy review of disregards in the means test for the Farm Assist scheme. As recommended by the review, the list of agri-environmental schemes that attract a disregard (i.e. income ignored from agricultural grants) was extensively extended. The amount of this disregard also increased from €2,540 to €5,000 from January 2023.
My Department also undertook a mid-term review of the Roadmap for Social Inclusion. This review of was published on 1 June 2023. The mid-term review included a review of progress in implementation, an assessment of the existing Roadmap ambition, goals and commitments, and a review of the existing Roadmap indicators.
All aspects of the review were informed by an independent stakeholder engagement process, undertaken by Ipsos. Under the joint Poverty and Social Inclusion research programme, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) undertook a review of the EU and national indicators used to measure progress against Roadmap ambitions and goals.
The review recognised that there have been significant changes in context since the publication of the Roadmap and that many strategies referenced were out of date. In total 12 additional commitments have been added to the Roadmap as a result of the mid-term review, with updates made to 17 existing commitments. Additionally, two new targets have been included and are complemented by seven revised targets.
In September 2022, I announced a series of landmark reforms to the State Pension system. The measures are in response to the Pensions Commission’s recommendations and represent the biggest ever structural reform of the Irish State Pension system. These reforms are being worked on right now with a view to implementation in 2024.
My Department has also continued the administration of the School Meals Programme during this period. The School Meals Programme provides funding towards the provision of food services to some 1,600 schools and organisations benefitting 260,000 children. Since my appointment as Minister for Social Protection, I have increased the number of schools with access to the Hot School Meal option from 37 to over 500. I am committed to continuing to expand the School Meals Programme and building further on the significant extension of the programme that has taken place in recent years. In this regard, I intend to roll out the Hot School Meals to all remaining DEIS primary and Special schools from September 2023, benefiting more than 60,000 children.
As part of significant plans to extend the Hot School Meals to all children in the coming years all remaining primary schools have been contacted and have been asked to submit an expression of interest form if their school is interested in commencing the provision of hot school meals.