Mary Flaherty
Ceist:15 Miss Flaherty asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he has any plans to review the means of assessment of income for savings, especially in the context of old age pensions.
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefit.
Applicants for social assistance payments who have capital are assessed with a notional income from the capital. Under the old age pension scheme a person can have means from all sources of up to £6 per week and still qualify for the maximum pension. In the case of a married couple this would be £12 per week. Under existing arrangements for calculating the value of capital for old age pension purposes, a married couple could have joint capital of up to £5,975 and still qualify for the maximum pension. They could have joint capital up to £57,975 and still qualify for minimum rate of pension and participate in all the "free schemes". This compares very favourably, for example, with the position in the United Kingdom where a person with capital greater than £8,000 does not qualify for income support.
The current assessment is more or less in line with general rates of return on investments. For example, in relation to long term investments the representative yields on Government securities are currently around 10 per cent.
I am keeping the assessment under review with particular reference to the possibility of rationalising the different methods of assessing the value of capital under the different social assistance schemes. Any changes in the present arrangements would have to be considered in a budgetary context.
John Connor
Ceist:16 Mr. Connor asked the Minister for Social Welfare his views on whether the regulations applied by social welfare officers when assessing means for a farmer are just, in view of the fact that they apply average annual sales, which usually give a higher figure than the actual sales figures as shown by receipts.
Michael Finucane
Ceist:24 Mr. Finucane asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he intends to change the criteria which apply to farmers in claiming unemployment assistance in order to take into consideration the present crisis in farm incomes.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 24 together. In July last I introduced changes in means assessment to benefit smallholders. The estimated value of farm produce consumed by the household is no longer assessed for means tested schemes nor is the net income accruing to a household in a Gaeltacht area from providing accommodation for students attending Irish language courses.
Since 1983 when the notional system of assessing a smallholder's farm income was abolished, all applicants for unemployment assistance are assessed on a factual basis. To be entitled to unemployment assistance an applicant must show that his or her annual means are less than 52 times the appropriate scheduled rate. These rates are adjusted in accordance with budgetary increases.
Means from farming for unemployment assistance purposes are assessed under specific provisions of the Social Welfare Acts. This legislation provides that the yearly value of any advantage accruing to the claimant from the use of property — other than property personally used and enjoyed by the claimant, such as a dwelling — is assessable as means.
In the case of farmers the value of the yearly advantage is essentially based on the income from the farm less any expenses actually and necessarily incurred in earning that income. The basis of the calculation is the net income from the farm over the 12 months preceding the date of the investigation adjusted where necessary to reflect significant changes in present or emerging trends in farm prices. Thus, account is taken of the present fall in farm prices.
The existing method of means assessment has the flexibility to cater for fluctuations in income. It is open to any smallholder in receipt of unemployment assistance who considers that he may now be entitled to a higher rate of payment as a result of a significant reduction in his means due to lower farm prices to apply, in the normal manner, to have his assessment reviewed. Such a case would generally be reviewed again at some later date so that the on-going means assessment would reflect the normal situation. Other smallholders who now consider that they might be eligible for unemployment assistance as a result of a fall in their incomes may apply to the local office of my Department.
Austin Deasy
Ceist:17 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Social Welfare if his attention has been drawn to the considerable increase in the cost of bottled gas and the concern it is causing to poor and elderly people; and if he will provide an additional allowance to alleviate the hardship being caused.
The national fuel scheme is designed to assist households who are dependent on long term social welfare or health board payments and who are unable to provide for their own heating needs. It is estimated that 222,000 households will be assisted under the scheme this winter at a cost of £35 million.
A payment of £5 per week is made to eligible households from mid-October to mid-April. A special payment of £8 per week is made in the Dublin area following the introduction of the ban on bituminous coal.
The fuel and light component of the consumer price index has not increased substantially in recent years. For that reason I have concentrated on improving the scheme by extending its coverage. This year, the scheme was extended to include smallholders receiving long term unemployment assistance and recipients of long term payments residing with a person receiving short term unemployment assistance. An additional 9,000 people will benefit from this extension.
The recent increases in the cost of bottled gas which are out of line with the general rise in fuel prices are linked to the increase in the cost of oil arising from the Gulf crisis. The cost may decrease in line with any fall in oil prices over the coming months.
I will be keeping the fuel allowance under review in the context of changes in the cost of fuels. Any change in the overall level of the fuel allowance would be a matter for consideration in the budgetary context.
My Department also operate a free bottled gas allowance for certain social welfare pensioners whose home is not connected to an electricity supply but who otherwise satisfy the conditions for free electricity allowance. Such people are unaffected by the rise in the cost of bottled gas as they receive the full cost of 12 cylinders of gas per year.
Tomás MacGiolla
Ceist:19 Tomás Mac Giolla asked the Minister for Social Welfare the number of men currently in receipt of the deserted husbands/lone parents allowance; the total number of applications received; the number rejected and the number still under consideration; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The deserted husband's/ widower's allowance was introduced by me in October 1989. A total of 1,515 men have applied for the allowance to date. There are currently 915 men in receipt of the allowance — 592 widowers and 323 deserted husbands. The total number of claims rejected to date is 346. The main reasons for rejection were "desertion criteria not met" 146, and "means over limit" 79. In addition, 163 claimants have either withdrawn their claim or else have had payment discontinued for various reasons. There are 91 claims currently under consideration.
I have introduced a comprehensive new lone parent's allowance scheme commencing this month. This scheme will subsume the widowers' and deserted husbands' allowance, along with analogous allowances for women with dependent children. A significant feature of the new lone parents scheme is that it is no longer necessary for separated parents to have to prove that they were deserted by their spouses. It is expected that a considerable number of those rejected will be eligible under the new loan parent's allowance scheme.
Proinsias De Rossa
Ceist:22 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Social Welfare if his attention has been drawn to the anomaly whereby in the case of separate payments, cushion payments introduced following social welfare equalisation are withdrawn from the wife, if the couple are living apart; that in such cases only the husband as the claimant, can appeal against the decision; if he will take steps to address this anomaly; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The revised definition of dependency for social welfare purposes introduced following the full implementation of the EC Directive on Equal Treatment in 1986 resulted in a loss of household income in certain circumstances. Before the change was introduced, married women were automatically regarded as adult dependants if they were living with or being wholly or mainly maintained by their husband. The equal treatment alleviating measures introduced in 1986, were intended to compensate the families concerned for the losses resulting from these changes. The measures involved special payments to married men claimants who, by virtue of the old dependency definition, were entitled to an adult dependant increase but who stood to lose that payment on the introduction of the new dependency definition.
Under the regulations governing separate payments the adult dependant and any child dependant portion only were payable to the wife. However, I have recently made regulations which provide for a change in the method of determining the "split" in the case of a couple living together where separate payment arrangements apply. Under the new provisions, the amount payable to each spouse by way of separate payment will be half of the appropriate married rate i.e. half the sum of the personal and adult dependant rate. In addition, the spouse with care of any qualified child dependants will receive the full amount payable in respect of these.
The fact that an alleviation payment is being made is an indication that the wife is not a dependant of her husband within the meaning of the Social Welfare Acts and where the parties decide to live apart and separate payment arrangements are in place the wife is entitled to any child dependant increase only which was payable to her husband at half rate.
Michael Moynihan
Ceist:26 Mr. Moynihan asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will adjust the long term disability benefit recipient's allowance to place it on a similar basis as the long term allowance for unemployment assistance, in view of the current disparity between both payments.
Disability benefit is essentially a short term payment in respect of temporary incapacity for work. It is similar to other short term benefits, such as unemployment benefit, in terms of the rate payable and entitlement to additional benefits.
Invalidity pension is available to those who have been on disability benefit for a year or longer, and who satisfy the medical and contribution conditions. This pension is paid at a higher rate than long term unemployment assistance — it is, for example, £2.10 per week more than long term unemployment assistance for a single person. Invalidity pensioners are also eligible for additional benefits, such as free fuel and free travel.