Vol. 397 No. 7
52 Mrs. Fennell asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason the earnings disregarded for means tests have remained at £6 for over ten years; whether he has any plans to update this to a more realistic figure of £30; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
At present claimants with means of up to £6 a week can qualify for the maximum old age or widow's pension. However, if the claimant has a job and dependants the weekly amount of his earnings which can be disregarded is much higher. This also applies in the case of allowances for deserted wives, prisoners' wives, unmarried mothers and the new schemes for widowers and deserted husbands. There is no disregard of this kind under the unemployment assistance or supplementary welfare allowance schemes.
Only a minority of recipients are adversely affected by the present levels of disregards. For example, at the end of February 1990, 70 per cent of old age pensioners, 64 per cent of widows and about 78 per cent of claimants receiving allowances as deserted wives, prisoners' wives and unmarried mothers were in receipt of maximum payments.
The Government, while maintaining the overall value of social welfare payments, have made significant additional resources available to increase the payments to those on the lowest levels, particularly the long-term unemployed. The policy of using any resources available to provide increases in basic rates of payment ensures these resources are chanelled to all recipients. On the other hand, increasing the levels of disregards would mean channelling resources specifically to those recipients who already have means.
The question of a change in the levels of disregards would be a matter for consideration in a budgetary context.
53 Mr. Kavanagh asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will consider payment of allowances to prisoners' wives in all cases where the sentence is more than one month; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Under existing legislation a prisoner's wife allowance may be payable if the spouse has been sentenced for a period of at least six months. The allowance is at present paid by means of a pension book. Typically, pension and other allowance books are issued for periods of six to 12 months and are renewed in bulk once or twice a year as appropriate. Accordingly, the payment book is not suitable for short duration entitlements.
