asked the Minister for Social Welfare the number of reviews of recipients of free telephone rental allowance undertaken by his Department for the period 1 July 1986 to 30 June 1987.
7.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
1.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the number of reviews of recipients of free television licences undertaken by his Department for the period 1 July 1986 to 30 June 1987.
28.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the number of reviews of recipients of free electricity allowance undertaken by his Department for the period 1 July 1986 to 30 June 1987.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1, 7 and 28 together.
The operation of the three schemes in question, i.e. free electricity, free telephone rental and free television licence, is closely linked because they apply to persons with an underlying entitlement to one of a range of payments common to all three.
In fact, receipt of free electricity allowance acts as a passport to receipt of a free TV licence. Although there are some differences in the conditions of entitlement between the free telephone rental scheme and the other two schemes, in practice a single review process is usually sufficient to determine whether a claimant is qualified in each case and separate reviews for each scheme are not therefore necessary.
In the period in question some 40,000 entitlements under the free schemes were reviewed in one way or another. The majority of the reviews, some 28,000, arose by reason of changes to the person's underlying pension entitlement or to changes in the person's family circumstances. About half of these lead to termination of entitlement to the free schemes. The remainder arose as part of the Department's ongoing control and review procedures and about 10 per cent of these reviews resulted in entitlement to the free scheme being withdrawn.
2.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the number of reviews of recipients of unemployment assistance undertaken by his Department for the period 1 July 1986 to 30 June 1987.
All recipients under the various schemes administered by my Department are subject to continuous review to ensure that the claimants continue to satisfy the appropriate conditions under which payments are authorised. Although statistics are maintained in some cases, figures covering all reviews carried out in the period mentioned are not available.
In order to qualify for unemployment assistance a claimant is required to be unemployed, capable of work, available for work and genuinely seeking work. The claimant must also satisfy a means test. Therefore, a review of unemployment assistance recipients can take the form of either a review of means or a review of whether the claimant continues to satisfy the other conditions for entitlement to payment.
During the period 1 July 1986 to 30 June 1987 some 63,000 reviews of means in unemployment cases were carried out by officials of my Department. Reviews may be carried out at the initiative of the Department or at the request of claimants where they consider that their financial circumstances have changed since the initial investigation of means. This could arise, for example, where the spouse of a claimant had originally been employed and is now no longer employed or, in the case of a self-employed person, where the income may have changed.
In relation to satisfying the other conditions, there is an ongoing process of review of claimants. For instance deciding officers at local offices of my Department must satisfy themselves that each claimant is available for, and genuinely seeking work. In reviewing claims in this context the deciding officer must be satisfied that the claimant is unemployed, is in a position to take up full-time work and is in fact willing to do so. Statistics of the number of claims reviewed at local offices under this heading are not maintained.
An external control unit was established last year and the work of this section involves the continuous review of claimants. Control officers operate at the Department's local offices for the sole purpose of reviewing both unemployment assistance and benefit claims. Over 8,000 claimants have been called for interview by this unit.
Officers of my Department's special investigation unit investigate possible concurrent working and claiming by unemployment assistance as well as unemployment benefit claimants. Apart from the investigation of reports received of abuses, officers of the unit also attend at signing centres throughout the country and interview claimants. In the 12 month period in question some 4,500 unemployment recipients were reviewed by this unit.
To date this year some 130,000 unemployment benefit and assistance recipients have been interviewed by the National Manpower Service under the Jobsearch programme. Claimants who do not accept an invitation to participate in this programme have also had their cases reviewed, resulting in 1,785 disallowances so far this year. In addition, almost 11,500 left the live register voluntarily either before or after being interviewed by the National Manpower Service under the programme.
There is an onus on all claimants to bring any change in their circumstances to the attention of the Department. Where there are reasonable grounds for believing that the circumstances of a claimant might have altered, the case is referred for immediate review.
The reviews I have outlined are the main ones. Their main purpose is to ensure that the scheme of unemployment assistance is as secure as possible against abuse while at the same time providing a good and efficient service giving their full entitlements to the vast majority of recipients who have genuine entitlements to payment.
Has the Minister any proposals to change the procedure whereby assessment of means is based on the means of a claimant on a particular day? I am thinking in particular of young people whose father or mother may be working and, on the day an inspector calls, the income for that particular week may be higher relative to the overall income of the household. Has the Minister any plans to change that and take a more general approach to income into the household?
I will be reviewing the whole operation of that system for a variety of reasons, not just the one the Deputy mentioned. I appreciate the point the Deputy is making.
There is also the question of people wanting to avail themselves of casual work and being able to be away for very short periods. There are arrangements which facilitate this, but they may not be flexible enough to deal with the circumstances that arise.
Another aspect is the difficulty in doing all these calculations repeatedly and changing them and so on. We have now just completed computerising the unemployment assistance in Dublin and are starting in Cork. That will offer new opportunities for flexibility which were not available hitherto. That is something that can be looked at. The increased cost would obviously be a factor to be taken into consideration.
Arising out of the Minister's indication that a wider review is taking place, I suggested previously that a self-assessment system could be introduced in relation to unemployment assistance, just as there is in relation to the self-employed in the tax area, where there would be a requirement to provide documentation, thus reducing the delays that are involved at present in making assessments. Has the Minister any intention of considering that aspect?
One of the reasons that approach has not gained any favour in the past is the lack of control and flexibility in the whole system. Certainly, I shall consider the possibility of its becoming more flexible in a variety of ways.