Pat Cox
Ceist:233 Mr. Cox asked the Minister for Social Welfare the total amount paid in unemployment benefit and unemployment assistance in the budget year 1993; and the average number of recipients to which these figures relate.
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
Final expenditure figures for 1993 will not be available until March 1994.
Provisional expenditure for unemployment payments for 1993 and the average weekly number of recipients to which this expenditure relates are as follows:
|
£m |
Average Weekly Number of Recipients |
|
|
Unemployment Assistance (excluding smallholders) |
750.0 |
198,300 |
|
Smallholders |
40.0 |
11,500 |
|
Unemployment Benefit |
240.0* |
75,600 |
* In addition to this sum, Pay-Related Benefit amounting to £19.4 million was paid as a supplement to some 35,000 of the recipients of Unemployment Benefit shown above.
Tony Gregory
Ceist:234 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Social Welfare the criteria for the granting of a supplementary welfare clothing allowance; and the reason a person (details supplied) in Dublin 1 who received the allowance in the years 1991 and 1992 was refused this allowance in January 1993.
The only standard clothing scheme operated under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme is the back-to-school clothing and footwear scheme, which I introduced in 1990 under which people on low incomes may qualify for assistance towards the cost of children's clothes. This scheme is administered by the health boards under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme and expenditure was in the region of £10 million in 1993.
Under the exceptional needs provisions of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme a board may make a single payment to meet an exceptional need which could include assistance with the cost of clothing.
I understand from the Eastern Health Board, which is responsible for the administration of the scheme in the Dublin area, that the person concerned applied for assistance with clothing costs in 1993 but was refused because her case was considered not to be exceptional. This decision was upheld by the appeals officer.