Written Answers Nos. 134-148
134. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Social Protection to confirm that core social welfare rates will be raised to at least the rate of inflation since 2013 when once-off cost-of-living payments end, so that core social welfare rates have not been cut in real terms since 2013 (details supplied). [53993/23]
View answerA simple comparison between core welfare rates with inflation does not take into account that, over recent years, changes in these core rates have been underpinned by increases in targeted payments which further support those most vulnerable to poverty.
Since March last year, as the Cost of Living increased, this Government has provided unprecedented supports to protect people and families.
In October, I secured a package of €2.3 billion for Social Protection measures as part of Budget 2024. This represents, for the second year in a row, the largest Budget package for the Department of Social Protection in the history of the State and will help to support our pensioners, carers, people with disabilities, lone parents and families during this difficult period.
The Budget Package included:
• Weekly Personal and Qualified Adult Rates increases by €12
• Increase for a Qualified Child increased by €4 per week
• Increase of the Working Family Payment income thresholds for all families by €54 per week
• Extension of Hot School Meals to non-DEIS primary Schools who applied under an Expression of Interest
• Extension of Parent's Benefit from 7 weeks to 9 weeks
• Extension of Child Benefit to 18 year olds in full time education
• Increased rate of Domiciliary Care Allowance by €10 to €340 per month
• A reduction to the minimum weekly hours threshold for employers to avail of the Wage Subsidy Scheme from 21 to 15 hours
• An increase to the earnings disregard for Carer's Allowance to €450 for a single person and €900 for a couple
• Additional funds to include provision for Free Travel for people medically certified unfit to drive
As part of this package, a wide range of lump-sum payments are have been paid. Including:
• €400 to Working Family Payment recipients
• €400 to recipients of Disability Allowance, Blind Pension and Invalidity Pension
• €400 to recipients of the Carer’s Support Grant
• €200 to recipients of the Living Alone Allowance
• €300 to all Fuel Allowance recipients in 2023
• €100 for each child in respect of whom an Increase for a Qualified Child is in payment
This week will see two further lump sum payments being made:
• A double payment of Child Benefit
• A 100% Christmas Bonus
And in January, a 100% double payment, at higher weekly rates, will be made to recipients of long term social protection payments.
The ESRI analysis shows that Budget 2024 rate increases, combined with the cost of living measures, are effective in protecting most households from rising prices through the winter. The analysis also shows that lower income households are better off than if they had just received an inflation indexed increase in basic rates.
The ERSI analysis states that the package of tax cuts, welfare increases, cost of living payments and indirect tax changes introduced under Budget 2024 is progressive with higher gains for low-income households compared to high income households.
The combination of once-off and ongoing measures will support vulnerable groups including pensioners, carers, people with disabilities, lone parents and families. For example, a lone parent with two young children, will be €2,448 better off due to Budget 2024. A pensioner couple will see their income increase by more than €2,514. A person with a disability living alone will be €2,020 better off after Budget 2024.
The Budget is independently assessed as being progressive, targeted at lower income households and will protect these households against rising costs.
135. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will review the “working week” for working age payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53875/23]
View answerThe Department uses a "payment week" across its range of social welfare schemes rather than the concept of a "working week." The payment week is defined in primary legislation for each scheme. I understand the Deputy is particularly interested in the arrangements for Jobseekers schemes, which are payable from Wednesday to Tuesday in the case of Jobseeker's Allowance, and from Thursday to Wednesday for Jobseeker's Benefit.
The payment dates on social welfare schemes are long established and when originally introduced, took into account factors such as staggering attendances at Social Welfare offices and Post Offices on particular days. This minimises queuing times to prevent long delays and continues to remain a key consideration.
Any changes to these arrangements would require careful consideration.
The Department is undertaking reforms in respect of the Jobseeker's schemes including the introduction of a pay related benefit payment in the second half of 2024. The appropriate payment arrangements will be considered as part of this process.
I trust this clarifies the matter.
136. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications received for the humanitarian assistance scheme after flooding in Cork City and Cork County in October 2023; the number of applications processed and approved; the number of applications outstanding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54070/23]
View answerThe Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is the lead Department for severe weather emergencies. My department provides assistance to eligible households in the immediate aftermath of emergency weather events under the humanitarian assistance scheme.
The humanitarian assistance scheme, administered by my department through the local Community Welfare Service, was activated to assist householders affected by a number of recent weather events across the country. This scheme remains open to those affected by these weather events to apply for assistance.
The purpose of the humanitarian assistance scheme is to provide income- tested financial support to people whose homes are damaged and who are not able to meet costs for essential needs, household items and, in some instances, structural repair.
The income test for humanitarian assistance is more generous than that which applies in the case of social welfare schemes generally. The basic principle of the income test is that individuals and families with average levels of income will qualify for assistance (including non-Social Welfare recipients).
Statistics are maintained on the number of payments made on the scheme. Since Storm Babet which occurred on 18th October 2023, some 740 payments have been made to customers in Cork up to the week ending 2nd December, totalling approximately €1,100,000.
If any household affected by the flooding in Co. Cork needs to access these supports, they can contact the Community Welfare Service by phoning 0818 60 70 80.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
137. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Social Protection the progress made with the report on means testing in the social welfare system; when it is hoped it will be published; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54177/23]
View answerSocial welfare legislation provides that, for social assistance schemes, income and capital (such as savings, investments and property other than the family home) belonging to the claimant and his or her partner, where applicable, is assessable for means assessment purposes. Means test rules in my Department are kept under regular review and I have introduced a number of significant changes in recent years 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.
• Expanding the list of agri-environmental schemes that qualify for a disregard, and as part of Budget 2023 I increased this disregard.
• 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 2023 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 further increased the disregard to €450 for a single person, and €900 for carers with a spouse/partner from June.
• I recently signed Regulations which provide for disregards in relation to UCD's Cothram na Féinne scholarship programme, benefiting third level students from lower income households.
I have committed to carrying out a broad review of means testing. This is ongoing and it will be completed in Q1 2024.
138. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection if there are any measures under consideration by her Department to reduce child poverty that were not announced in the Budget. [54179/23]
View answerBudget 2024 targeted social welfare measures to assist low-income families with children by providing for the rate of the Increase for a Qualified Child to increase by €4 per week to €54 in respect of children aged 12 or over and by €4 per week to €46 in respect of children aged under 12. As a result, these rates will have increased by €10 for under 12s and by €14 for over 12s over the last four Budgets. The measure will cost an estimated €60.9 million in a full year resulting in an annual expenditure on these payments of approximately €700 million in 2024.
Increasing the Working Family Payment income thresholds is a targeted measure that is directly linked to household income, and therefore directly supports low-income working families. Budget 2024 announced an increase in these thresholds for all families by €54 per week from January 2024.
ERSI research has shown that social transfers that target children, including Qualified Child Increase and Working Family Payment, have the greatest effect on poverty. This is true for the overall population but particularly for children and people living in rented accommodation and groups that are the most exposed to poverty. Reform of the Working Family Payment by increasing the earnings limit was found to be particularly effective in reducing income poverty.
In addition, I intend to publish legislation shortly which will provide for child maintenance payments to be disregarded in the means test for social welfare payments. This measure will mean that many lone parents currently on reduced rates of payment will see their payment increase and some additional lone parents will qualify for a payment. It is estimated that this measure will be of direct benefit to approximately 16,000 lone parents at a cost of approximately €10 million per year.
The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 outlines the Government’s strategy to reduce the number of people in consistent poverty and increase social inclusion to those who are most disadvantaged. It is a whole of government strategy with a five-year timeframe which aims to reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU. It also includes a commitment to set a new national child poverty target and I recently launched a public consultation on setting this new target. The closing date for submissions is Friday 19 January 2024 at 5pm.
I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.
139. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Social Protection if she has considered the scope of a partnership with a body like An Post to continue the sort of well-being support offered to people at risk of isolation, which was so successful during Covid, becoming a permanent feature in our communities. [54195/23]
View answerMy Department has not considered to date entering into such a partnership with a body such as An Post.
The contract my Department has in place with An Post is for the provision of cash payment services to welfare recipients and is an important contract both for An Post and my Department as it provides that welfare recipients may access their welfare payment in their local Post office. This is an important support to those welfare recipients and indeed local Post Offices.
140. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Social Protection the measures that are being taken to reduce the current processing times by the appeals department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54186/23]
View answerThe Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions.
Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to reforming the appeal process in recent years. As a result, average appeal processing times have generally improved between 2018 and 2022 from 30.0 weeks for an oral hearing in 2018 to 26.0 weeks in 2022, and from 24.8 weeks for a summary decision in 2018 to 15.0 weeks in 2022. The average times for all appeals finalised in 2022 was 14.9 weeks.
Further improvements in appeals processing times are a priority for the Chief Appeals Officer. A significant Appeals Modernisation Project is currently underway the goal of which is to streamline and enhance the end-to-end appeals process for the customer, the Social Welfare Appeals Office and business areas across the Department. As part of this project a new IT system went live on the 6th November 2023. The new system will significantly reduce the time taken to register and acknowledge appeals lodged with the Appeals Office. Additional staff were assigned to the office as part of the project to assist with the preparation for and transition to the new IT system and the establishment of new procedures.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
142. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Social Protection for an update on the progress on the auto-enrolment pensions scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54060/23]
View answerThe introduction of a pensions auto-enrolment system is a Programme for Government commitment, and a key priority for me as Minister for Social Protection.
Last year, I published 'The Design Principles for Ireland’s Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System', which sets out the new system in detail. Implementation of the AE system has been gathering pace since then, with the first enrolments expected to begin in the latter half of 2024.
A dedicated project team in the Department of Social Protection is solely focused on implementing the agreed design, including drafting the necessary legislation that will underpin it, designing the organisational structures and the technical system to operate it, and communicating this landmark reform to stakeholders and the public.
A key element of this design is the establishment of a Central Processing Authority (CPA), which will be established to manage and administer the AE system on behalf of the participants. The CPA will initially operate on an administrative basis within the Department of Social Protection. In time, the CPA will become a statutorily independent public agency operating under the auspices of the Minister for Social Protection.
The legislation to underpin AE is currently being drafted, with my officials working with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. It is my intention to publish the AE Bill early in the New Year with initiation of its passage through the Oireachtas immediately thereafter. This will be a major milestone in progressing towards implementation.
Work also continues on putting the administrative and operational processes in place with the cooperation of the Revenue Commissioners and the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform.
A procurement exercise for outsourced administration services is well advanced with the first phase complete and the second phase taking place in the coming weeks. A procurement exercise for outsourced investment management services is at an advanced stage of development and will commence early in the New Year.
While there remains much to be done in this ambitious project, considerable progress is being made on multiple workstreams.
I hope that this clarifies matters for the Deputy.
143. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Social Protection about the recent changes to the Reasonable Accommodation Fund and the Disability Awareness Support Scheme and what these will comprise; if these changes will result in the creation of a new fund or scheme; if there were considerations given to allow funding to follow the person instead of being granted to the business; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54067/23]
View answerMy Department provides a wide range of income and employment supports to assist jobseekers and employees with disabilities, and their employers. These supports include the Reasonable Accommodation Fund and the Disability Awareness Support Scheme.
The Reasonable Accommodation Fund provides financial support for people with disabilities and for employers to help make their workplaces more accessible. The Disability Awareness Support Scheme provides funding for disability awareness training for employees.
I published a review of these schemes at the end of August. The review recommends combining the two schemes into a single flexible scheme, simplifying systems and processes, providing approval in principle, and promoting the reformed scheme.
It also recommends increasing funding, extending workplace needs assessments, and job coaching to new recruits and all existing employees, increasing the number of support hours eligible for funding, providing support for blended working, and opening the scheme to other employers, for example the voluntary and community sector.
My Department is currently working to operationalise these recommendations and I expect to launch a reformed scheme that will give effect to all nine recommendations in Q1 2024.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
144. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection how many complaints her Department has received this year regarding social welfare inspections. [54182/23]
View answerFrom January to end of November 2023, there were over 88,000 investigations and reviews completed by Social Welfare Inspectors across the country.
My Department received a total of 44 complaints regarding Social Welfare Inspectors over the same period.
|
Year |
Total |
Type |
|
2023 January to end November |
44 |
Social Welfare Inspector |
I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.
145. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Social Protection if she thinks it is acceptable that the SCOPE investigation will take fifteen years to complete; and what steps she is taking to speed it up. [54003/23]
View answerIn late 2020, my Department commenced an investigation into the PRSI classification of RTÉ’s contractors. RTE provided the Department with lists of workers engaged on a contract basis in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and these formed the basis of the investigation. These amount to 695 workers over the period. The scale of the Department’s investigation in RTE is significant and further workers may be brought into the scope of the investigation as it proceeds.
Employment status investigations can be complex; each case involves at least two parties and each case must be investigated having regard to its own facts and with an opportunity for each party to be interviewed and to make and respond to submissions.
The estimate of 15 years which the Deputy refers to was provided by RTE at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on 12 October.
It is not an estimate with which the Department agrees.
Clearly, it is in the interests of workers, RTÉ and the Department that the investigations are progressed in a timely and efficient manner.
It is a matter for RTE and the worker concerned to separately decide on their approach to the Department’s investigation, including whether to agree to a reclassification at the outset of an investigation or to appeal any resulting decisions by the Department.The employer and the worker are entitled to have each case investigated separately and to have a separate decision issued.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
146. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons in receipt of the fuel allowance in each of the past ten years, 2023 inclusive. [53694/23]
View answerThe Fuel Allowance scheme is a means-tested payment to assist pensioners and other long-term social welfare dependent householders with their winter heating costs. The payment is made over the winter season - from September to April - at the weekly rate of €33 or, if preferred, by way of two lump sum instalments - one in September and one in January. Only one Fuel Allowance is payable per household. Those who qualify for the payment do not need to reapply annually.
In Budget 2023, I introduced a more generous means test for those aged over 70, with a higher means threshold of €500 for a single person and €1,000 for a couple. From 5th January 2024, the means thresholds for over those aged over 70 will increase to €512 per week for a single person over 70 and €1,024 per week for a couple. Applicants aged over 70 no longer need to be receiving a qualifying social protection payment and the threshold for the capital disregard increased from €20,000 to €50,000. For those aged under 70, the means threshold was increased by €80 and is now €200 above the appropriate rate of State Pension Contributory for the household.
As part of Budget 2024, a €300 cost of living lump sum payment was paid to all recipients of the Fuel Allowance during the week commencing 20th November.
In relation to the number of persons who are in receipt of Fuel Allowance, the Department generally collates this data on an annual basis. Over the past 10 years, at the end of December each year, the records of the Department indicate that the Fuel Allowance scheme supported the following number of households:
In 2014, there were 408,242 households receiving the Fuel Allowance.
In 2015: 392,190 households.
In 2016: 379,406 households.
In 2017: 370,631 households.
In 2018: 380,463 households*.
In 2019: 369,255 households.
In 2020: 375,269 households.
In 2021: 374,861 households.
In 2022: 393,767 households.
At the end of October 2023, there were 409,440 households in receipt of the Fuel Allowance.
* Numbers on TUS, Rural Social Schemes and Community Employment Schemes receiving the Fuel Allowance are included from 2018 onwards.
It should be noted that the number of recipients fluctuates as people join and exit the scheme, as their circumstances change.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
147. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Social Protection if she has considered the development of programmes to support people approaching retirement to better prepare for the substantial changes which need to be managed. [54194/23]
View answerThere are a number of payments and pensions paid by my Department to people over State Pension Age. Currently, upon reaching age 66, a person may be entitled to either the State Pension (Contributory), the State Pension (Non-Contributory) or the Widow's, Widower's and Surviving Civil Partner's (Contributory) Pension, depending on their contribution record, means and personal circumstance. There are also a range of secondary payments available where applicable, including Household Benefits, Fuel Allowance, the Living Alone Allowance, and the Free Travel Pass. Comprehensive information on all of these are available on the Department's website, from officers and in leaflets available in the Department's Intreo offices, and from Citizens Information Centres and website.
Wider supports to people approaching retirement age and beyond, are the remit of a number of other Government Departments. Recently, the Minister for Health announced a proposal to establish an independent Commission on Care for Older Persons. The Commission is due to be established in January 2024, and will examine the provision of health and social care services and supports for older persons and make recommendations to the government for their strategic development.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
