Vol. 405 No. 9
36 Tomás Mac Giolla asked the Minister for Social Welfare if his attention has been drawn to the fact that when people are transferring from unemployment benefit to unemployment assistance, they can lose a day's benefit because of the different payment weeks; if he intends to take any steps to address this anomaly; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The unemployment assistance payment week runs from a Wednesday to the following Tuesday and the unemployment benefit payment week runs from Thursday to the following Wednesday.
Where a person exhausts unemployment benefit and continues to be unemployed, unemployment assistance is payable as from the following day and there is no question of a day's payment being lost. Because, however, the unemployment assistance week ends a day earlier than the unemployment benefit week, the first payment which the claimant receives will be in respect of five days between benefit and assistance rather than six days as in the normal course. I understand that this may be confusing for some people and I am making arrangements to ensure that it is explained to them more fully and in good time.
These arrangements have been in force for many years and to change them would involve additional expenditure and have certain practical implications. I do feel, however, that we need to look more closely at this issue, perhaps with a view to moving away from having a fixed specific week for unemployment payments, and I will have the matter examined by the Department.
38 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Social Welfare the basis on which the income of a self-employed spouse is assessed in establishing entitlement to the adult dependant allowance; whether, in such an assessment, normal business expenses are taken into account; and, if not, the reason.
Arising from the introduction of the principle of equal treatment in matters of social security under EC Direction 79/7, the definition of dependency in the social welfare code had to be revised. Under the revised arrangements a spouse is not regarded as an adult dependant where he or she is either in receipt of a social welfare payment in their own right or has weekly earnings from employment or self-employment in excess of a specified limit. This earnings limit was increased to £55 with effect from the beginning of June 1990.
39 Mr. Pattison asked the Minister for Social Welfare if his attention has been drawn to the anomalies created by the operation of the family income supplement whereby some families can be paying upwards of 100 per cent marginal tax rate; whether the Government intend to implement the commission on social welfare recommendations that family income supplement should be phased out as child benefit increases; the steps he will take to resolve these anomalies; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
43 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he has considered the recommendations in the Combat Poverty Agency publication, Child Poverty in Ireland, to the effect that child benefit payment levels should increase and be subject to taxation; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 39 and 43 together. Significant progress has been made in recent budgets to improve the position of families through increases in the basic rates of payments which include very substantial increases in child dependant payments together with increases in child benefit. The recent budget was no exception in this regard with the main improvements in child related payments being an increase in the minimum child dependant rate to £12 representing an increase of 9 per cent, and streamlining to three rates; the payment of the higher child benefit of £22.90 in respect of the fourth child onwards, which represents an annual increase of over £85 for families of at least four children; and improvements in the family income supplement scheme including an increase in the income limits and the removal of the limitation on the level of payment. This latter improvement will be of significant help to very low earners.
In addition, child dependant allowances will be extended to age 21 in respect of the child dependants of long term recipients where the child remains in full time education. To ease the financial burden when a child dies the child dependant allowance will continue to be paid for six weeks after death.
A further important element in the Government's support for families with children is the child related tax exemption. This scheme will, from 6 April, provide for a child tax exemption of £300 for the first and second child in a family, and £500 for third and subsequent children.
The Government intend to build on the progress to date and, under the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, will provide the level of resources necessary to implement the additional child income support measures recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare — some £69 million in 1990 terms — over the ten year period of the programme. The particular measures taken will be worked out in the light of up to date information on child and family circumstances and in the light of available resources. In this context the structure of all child related payments, including child benefit, will be examined and this will include a detailed review of the various reports on family income support.
The programme also gives a commitment to review and substantially improve the structure of the family income supplement scheme. Changes will be designed so as to improve the level of payments to all beneficiaries, particularly those on the lowest income levels. As part of the restructuring, the role of the family income supplement and the link with the child benefit scheme will be examined, taking account of the type of issues raised by Deputy Pattison.
40 Mr. Garland asked the Minister for Social Welfare if his attention has been drawn to the current problems which arise when a single person, who is unemployed, is living in a common law relationship with a person who is employed and is thus unable to claim any unemployment benefit as the employed person is deemed to be supporting this person and the employed person is unable to claim any tax relief for the unemployed person; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
A person who satisfies the conditions for the receipt of unemployment benefit and who is living in a common law relationship with someone who is in employment is entitled to a personal rate of benefit which is not affected in any way by any income that partner may have.
Entitlement to unemployment assistance is, however, subject to a means test and the value to an applicant of the benefit and privilege arising from living with another person would be taken into account, as would be the case also for a married person.
The issue of tax relief raised by the Deputy is a matter for the Minister for Finance.
