Written Answers Nos. 103-116
103. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider expanding the illness benefit payment to self-employed persons (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46444/23]
View answerInvalidity Pension is a long-term income support payable to an insured person who satisfies certain PRSI contribution conditions and who is permanently incapable of work due to an illness or incapacity. Access to Invalidity Pension is available to self-employed contributors to protect them in the event of long-term injury or disablement.
Illness Benefit is the primary short term income support provided by my Department to those who are unable to work due to illness of any type and who are covered by social insurance.
Eligibility for Illness Benefit depends on the person’s PRSI record and class. People must have made the required number of contributions in Class A, E, H or P to qualify.
In general, self-employed people make PRSI contributions at Class S which does not count towards eligibility for Illness Benefit. However, self-employed contributors who cannot work due to an illness or a disability may apply for Invalidity Pension, as mentioned previously, or Disability Allowance (a means-tested social assistance payment).
Illness Benefit is funded by the Social Insurance Fund through PRSI contributions. The Fund is central to our social protection system and the Government needs to ensure that it can provide adequate and sustainable social insurance pensions and benefits for a growing and ageing population.
Self-employed people pay contributions to the Fund at a lower rate of 4%. This is over 11 percentage points lower than the combined employer and employee contribution of 15.05% made in respect of employed contributors. However, self-employed contributors do have access to over 90% of benefits available from the Fund:
These are:
• Adoptive Benefit;
• Guardian's Payment (Contributory);
• Invalidity Pension;
• Jobseeker's Benefit (Self-Employed);
• Maternity Benefit;
• Parent's Benefit;
• Partial Capacity Benefit (where in receipt of Invalidity Pension);
• Paternity Benefit;
• State Pension (Contributory);
• Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds;
• Treatment Benefit; and
• Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Contributory) Pension.
The only benefits that Class S PRSI does not provide access to are Carer's Benefit, Health and Safety Benefit, Illness Benefit, and Occupational Injuries Benefits.
Any changes would need to be considered in an overall policy and budgetary context, including the contribution rates for self-employed contributors.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
104. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on the current iteration of the means test for social assistance payments; if her Department is taking steps to update the means test; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46179/23]
View answerMeans tests in my Department are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes have been made in recent years.
I have introduced a number of changes to means testing, including providing for higher income disregards. These disregards ensure that, where people are in receipt of a social assistance payment and are working, their income from work to the level of the income disregard, is not assessed in the means test.
In 2022 I expanded the list of agri-environmental schemes that qualify for a disregard, and as part of Budget 2023 I increased this disregard.
In 2022 I also introduced a Rent a Room disregard, for all Social Protection schemes, to enable recipients to support those arriving from Ukraine, and others, in a tight housing market. Earlier this year, I extended that provision for a further two years.
From January this year I introduced significant changes to eligibility rules for Fuel Allowance, including a new means threshold for people aged 70 years and over - €500 for a single person and €1,000 for a couple. These changes resulted in an additional 35,000 households joining the scheme so far.
Last year I significantly increased the income and capital disregards for Carer's Allowance. This enables more carers with modest incomes to become eligible for the scheme and allows carers and their families to earn more from employment while retaining their carer’s payment.
As part of Budget 2024 I have further increased the disregard to €450 for a single person, and €900 for carers with a spouse/partner from June.
Regulations which provide for disregards in relation to UCD's Cothrom na Féinne scholarship programme are in development and I hope to sign them in the coming days, benefitting third level students from lower income households.
I have committed to a carrying out broad review of means testing this year, which is ongoing, and it will be completed by the end of the year.
I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.
105. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will outline the current processing times for disability allowance, carers allowance and social welfare appeals; if she will compare these waiting times to this time last year; her views on the increase in processing times for these applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46189/23]
View answerMy Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. In general, social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions can take longer to process.
Before a decision can be made on entitlement to carer’s allowance (CA), evidence must be provided in respect of the care recipient’s care requirement, the level of care the carer provides and the carer’s means. In respect of disability allowance (DA), evidence must be provided in respect of the person’s medical condition, the extent to which it restricts them from taking up employment, their means and their habitual residency.
The target processing time for the CA scheme is to award 75% of new claims within 10 weeks. The average processing time to award for new CA applications is currently 6 weeks. This remains the same as the average processing time of 6 weeks in 2022.
The target processing time for the DA scheme is to award 75% of new claims within 10 weeks. Currently the average processing time to award for new DA applications at the end September was 10 weeks. This represents an increase from December 2022 when the processing time was 8 weeks.
My Department understands the many pressures faced by people and always seeks to ensure that claims are processed quickly and efficiently.
The Social Welfare Appeals Office is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions.
All claim decisions taken by the Department’s Deciding Officers and Designated Persons are appealable to the Chief Appeals Officer. In any year, about 85% of all claims are awarded by the Department and approximately 1% are appealed. The Department endeavours to ensure that these cases are dealt with as quickly as possible.
Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to improvements in the appeal process in recent years. The average time for processing all appeals finalised in 2022 was 15 weeks. In 2023 to date, the average processing time for all appeals has increased slightly to 16 weeks.
The desire to process appeals quickly has to be balanced with the competing demand to ensure that decisions are consistent and of high quality and made in accordance with the legislative provisions and the general principles of fair procedures and natural justice. There is active engagement between the Appeals Office and the Department to ensure that the appeals process operates efficiently and that, where the Deciding Officer's decision is not revised in favour of the appellant, the appeal file papers are provided as quickly as possible to the Appeals Office for consideration by an Appeals Officer.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
106. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection when she anticipates that poverty among people with disabilities in this country will be ended; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46430/23]
View answerThe consistent poverty rate for people who were unable to work due to long standing health issues was 19.7% in 2022, whereas the national average in 2022 was 5.3%. While these figures are consistently higher for disabled people than for other cohorts, it must be noted that the 2022 SILC data is based on income from the 2021 calendar year and does not therefore take account of the many improvements in social welfare payments over the last three budgets.
My Department provides a number of income supports for those unable to work due to illness or disability. These include insurance-based schemes, based on Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contributions, and means tested social assistance schemes.
I have introduced many improvements across these schemes in my time as Minister for Social Protection. The personal rates increased by €17 per week over the last 2 budgets with proportionate increases for qualified adults. In addition, the income disregards which can be availed of by people receiving Disability Allowance or Blind Pension, have increased by almost 37% over the last three budgets to a current level of €165.
As part of Budget 2024, the Social Protection budget, which is the largest in the history of the State, will assist families and vulnerable citizens through a mix of lump sum supports and increases to weekly payments.
As part of Budget 2024 I will provide the following supports for people with disabilities:
• €400 cost of living lump sum will be paid to people getting a Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension and Blind Pension
• €300 cost of living lump sum for those getting the Fuel Allowance, to be paid in November 2023
• €200 cost of living lump sum to people who are getting a Living Alone Increase
• Christmas Bonus double payment to all persons getting a long-term disability payment
• from January 2024 there will be an increase of €12 in maximum personal rate of weekly disability payments. There will be proportionate increases for people getting a reduced rate
• January cost of living bonus for people getting a weekly social welfare payment, to be paid in January 2024
• provision for Free Travel Scheme for those medically certified unfit to drive
• reduction in the minimum weekly hours threshold from 21 to 15 hours for employers to avail of the Wage Subsidy Scheme.
However, there is still a need to reform our system of disability payments. In September, I published the Green Paper on Disability Reform to begin the conversation about improving these supports and further addressing the cost of disability.
The aim of the Green Paper is two-fold. Firstly it aims to encourage a higher level of employment for people with disabilities, which will improve their outcomes; and secondly to better insulate disabled people who cannot work from poverty and deprivation.
The tiered proposal in the Green Paper takes into consideration the recommendations of the Cost of Disability report, which found that income supports should be differentiated by need and that government policy should facilitate employment among those who can and wish to work.
Nobody will lose their payment or have their payment reduced. The objective is to increase people’s payments and provide more employment supports for those who can and want to work.
I would like to emphasise that the Green Paper is not a final design. It is only a starting point for a structured discussion on what the future of long-term disability payments could look like. It offers one possible approach on how to target limited resources - its proposals are intended to invite discussion, debate and suggestions.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
108. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for Social Protection how many people availed of the Activation and Family Support Programme in 2022 to fund the cost of training supports and education courses for people on social welfare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46412/23]
View answerThe Department's Activation and Family Support Programme provides funding to assist local organisations and agencies implement training and education initiatives to address the needs of recipients of welfare payments and their families who are distant from the labour market.
The Activation and Family Support Programme provided funding to 10 organisations in 2022 which provided training to over 170 participants. Expenditure on the scheme in 2022 was €222,000.
I trust this clarifies the matter.
110. Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Social Protection if she has carried out, or intends to carry out, any evaluation of the wage subsidy scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46449/23]
View answerThe Wage Subsidy Scheme is an employment support to private sector employers, the objective of which is to encourage employment of people with disabilities in the open labour market.
There are currently 1,507 employers on the scheme in respect of some 2,432 participant employees. Estimated expenditure on the Wage Subsidy Scheme in 2023 is €24 million.
To claim a subsidy under the scheme, the private sector employer must offer employment to a person with a disability for at least 21 hours per week and up to 39 hours per week. The contract of employment must be for a minimum of 6 months and the employee should be subject to and have the same conditions of employment as any of the employer's other employees.
The Programme for Government commits to fine-tuning and expanding targeted employment schemes, such as the Wage Subsidy Scheme, to help more people with disabilities stay in the workforce.
As part of Budget 2022, I increased the rate of the Wage Subsidy Scheme paid to employers, from €5.30 to €6.30 per hour. This gives a total annual subsidy available of €12,776 based on a 39-hour week.
My department is currently undertaking a review of the Scheme, as part of its commitments under the Comprehensive Employment Strategy. As part of this review a public consultation exercise was recently undertaken which invited people with disabilities, employers and the general public to share their views on the Scheme.
My officials are currently compiling the analysis from the consultation and working on completing the report and I expect the final report over the coming months. In the meantime, In anticipation of recommendations in the review, I have made provision in Budget 2024 to decrease the minimum hours from 21 to 15.
I trust that this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.
111. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Social Protection if she has considered introducing a permanent cost-of-living payment for disabled people; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46447/23]
View answerMy department provides a suite of income supports to those who cannot work due to illness or disability. It is important to note that eligibility for these payments is generally not dependent on the type of the illness or disability but on the extent to which a particular illness or disability impairs or restricts a person’s capacity to work. My department also provides a range of employment supports for disabled people who want to work or who are working.
The Indecon Cost of Disability report identified that additional costs of disability run across many areas of expenditure, including housing, transport, health, and education.
The report did not propose a Cost of Disability payment. It found that the cost of disability is significantly broader than income supports and there is not a single, typical cost of disability. Rather, there is a spectrum from low to high additional costs of disability, depending on individual circumstances.
The report concluded that disability payments should be targeted to those most in need and who face the greatest additional cost of disability rather than spreading resources thinly.
I am committed to addressing the cost of disability and improving outcomes for people with a disability. In Budget 2024, the following measures were announced that people on long-term disability supports will benefit from:
• In November, a €400 Disability Support lump sum will be paid to people receiving a long-term disability payment.
• A Christmas Bonus Double Payment will be paid to people in receipt of Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension and Blind Pension.
• From January 2024, there will be an increase of €12 in the maximum personal rate of weekly disability payments, with proportionate increases for qualified adults and those on reduced rates.
• Also, in January 2024, there will be a once-off double Cost of Living Support Payment which will be paid to qualifying Social Protection recipients, including all pensioners, carers and people on long-term disability payments.
I also introduced a number of measures that disabled people may benefit from, depending on their personal circumstances:
• In November, a €300 lump sum will be paid to those in receipt of the Fuel Allowance.
• In November, a €200 lump sum will be paid to those in receipt of the Living Alone Allowance.
• In November, there will be a once-off payment of €100 for each child in respect of whom an Increase for a Qualified Child is in payment.
• In December, there will be a double payment of child benefit.
• In January 2024, there will be an increase in the weekly rate of the Increase for Qualified Children by €4 per week for children of all ages.
• Free travel will be extended to an estimated 32,000 people medically certified as unfit to drive.
• From April 2024, €3.7 million additional funding has been allocated to implement reforms to the Wage Subsidy Scheme. This will allow for potential improvements on foot of the scheme’s review, including reducing the minimum required hours from 21 to 15 hours.
However, there is still a need to reform our system of disability payments. In September, I published the Green Paper on Disability Reform to begin the conversation about improving these supports and further addressing the cost of disability.
The aim of the Green Paper is two-fold. Firstly it aims to encourage a higher level of employment for people with disabilities, which will improve their outcomes; and secondly to better insulate disabled people who cannot work from poverty and deprivation.
The Paper’s key proposal is to introduce a new long-term disability payment that has three tiers of payment with associated employment supports.
This takes into consideration the recommendations of the Cost of Disability report, which found that income supports should be differentiated by need and that government policy should facilitate employment among those who can work.
The Green Paper is not a cost cutting measure. Based on a conservative estimate, the Green Paper proposals, if introduced, would increase spending by more than €130 million per year.
Nobody will lose their payment or have their payment reduced. The objective is to increase people’s payments and provide more employment supports for those who can and want to work.
I would like to emphasise that the Green Paper is not a final design. It is only a starting point for a structured discussion on what the future of long-term disability payments could look like. It offers one possible approach on how to target limited resources - its proposals are intended to invite discussion, debate and suggestions.
I encourage all those with an interest to express their views in our public consultation by making a submission or attending one of our public consultation events in Dublin, Cork and Athlone in November. It is essential that we hear from as many disabled people and representatives as possible. We would like to hear what people like and don't like about the proposals and suggestions of how they could be improved or replaced with alternatives.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
112. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will publish the Budget 2024 input document for the State pension process in October, given that Ireland is the only Eurozone country that does not index its State pension to earnings or inflation; and the current status of benchmarking the rate of the State pension against 34% of average earnings. [46389/23]
View answerLast September I announced a series of reforms to the State Pension system in response to the recommendations from the Commission on Pensions. As part of this, the Government committed that a smoothed earnings method to calculating a benchmarked/indexed rate of State Pension payments will be introduced as an input to the annual budget process and be submitted to Government each year.
My Department completed the benchmarking calculation and submitted this to Government as an input to the Budget 2024 process. This input was considered as part of the overall Budgetary discussions in the context of wider economic and environmental factors, Budget expenditure pressures across Departments, and taking into account once-off cost of living supports.
113. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for Social Protection if her Department has examined the provision of a statutory bereavement leave, and the costs associated with this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46413/23]
View answerMy Department does not have responsibility for the introduction of statutory leave.
An employee's entitlement to take time off in such circumstances depends on whether any provision exists in the employee’s contract of employment providing for such leave. For the vast majority of workers, conditions of employment, including bereavement leave provisions, are matters for negotiation between employers and employees. In the absence of any such provisions in an employment contract, bereavement leave is normally granted at the discretion of the employer.
The introduction of any statutory leave requires careful consideration of the subsequent impact on employment structures, costs and any potential equality issues which may arise. Accordingly, the policy aspects of leave types reside with my colleagues, the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment in terms of employment rights and with Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in terms of equality issues.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
115. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons currently in receipt of the disability allowance; and the number who were in receipt of the allowance in each of the past ten years. [46375/23]
View answerDisability Allowance is a weekly allowance paid to people with a disability. At the end of September 2023 there were 161,083 persons in receipt of Disability Allowance. Data requested by the Deputy for the end of each calendar year 2013 to 2022 are shown in the attached tabular statement.
|
Calendar Year |
Number of Recipients |
|
2013 |
106,279 |
|
2014 |
112,097 |
|
2015 |
119,042 |
|
2016 |
126,203 |
|
2017 |
133,929 |
|
2018 |
140,835 |
|
2019 |
146,755 |
|
2020 |
152,580 |
|
2021 |
155,181 |
|
2022 |
157,807 |
