Vol. 452 No. 5
7 Mr. Clohessy asked the Minister for Social Welfare the health boards, if any, that have sought an increase in the administration costs of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme in 1994-95; the amount of increase sought; and if their applications were granted. [8258/95]
19 Mr. Clohessy asked the Minister for Social Welfare the manner in which his Department arrives at the administration costs of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme for each regional health board; the method of calculation; and the reason administration costs are running at approximately 12 per cent [8259/95]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 19 together.
The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is administered on behalf of my Department by the eight regional health boards. All expenditure on allowances is borne in full by my Department. The administration costs of the supplementary welfare scheme were capped in 1988 by the Department of Finance and since then, any increase in this area, apart from the annual inflator applied requires the sanction of that Department.
The main additional items of administration for which Department of Finance sanction is regularly sought are: retirement gratuities of staff involved in the operation of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme and subsequent pension payments and additional staff.
The administration costs of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme for 1994 were £12.8 million which represents 11 per cent of total expenditure of £121 million on the scheme for that year. The 1995 administration allocation is set at £13.2 million which represents 10 per cent of the total post-budget allocation of £131.3 million for the scheme.
Annual administration costs are calculated on an individual board basis. For example, the 1995 administration allocation for each health board was based on the 1994 administration figure. Pay and price inflators are supplied by the Department of Finance and are used to adjust the estimate. Pay and non-pay costs are estimated at 70 per cent and 30 per cent respectively of total administration costs.
Have any of the health boards applied for an increase in their allocation?
Applications for increases are received regularly. An application was received from the Eastern Health Board for four clerical posts for an eight to 12 week period to implement the Cara statistical system. An increase of £6,000 in the board's administration allocation was granted for this purpose. A further request for funding two clerical officers for a six months period costing £10,000 and an additional clerical administration position costing £11,000 on a full time basis was refused. An application for funding of £13,913 in respect of the cost of establishing a special unit to deal with supplementary welfare allowance claims from former TEAM Aer Lingus employees was received. This included one SCWO and five CWOs for a period of six weeks. Sanction was not given for the SCWO post. The temporary CWO posts were sanctioned and a sum of £8,000 was provided for this purpose. Applications were also received from the Midland Health Board, the MidWestern Health Board and the NorthEastern Health Board. The only board which did not submit an application was the North-Western Health Board.
Will the Minister give the figures?
Sanction for an increase in the Midland Health Board administration costs of £27,000 in 1994 and £23,000 in 1995 was received. An application for funding of £59,000 in respect of bank charges incurred from 1989-92 was received. Sanction for this amount was requested from the Department of Finance. However, this was refused.
An application was received from the Mid-Western Health Board for funding of £4,000 to install a computer system to assist with the administration of the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance scheme. This application was refused. An application was received for funding to meet additional pension costs of retired staff members and for an increase in the board's administration allocation of £11,000. An application was received for a full time CWO to deal with asylum seekers and an acting CWO was appointed pending sanction of a full time position. A sum of £2,275 was provided to cover the costs of the acting CWO from 7 November 1994 to 31 December 1994. The extension of the period of employment of the acting CWO into 1995 is under consideration by the Department at present.
An application was received from the North-Eastern Health Board for additional funding to employ a temporary Grade II officer to provide clerical support in the Cavan-Monaghan area for the duration of the 1994 back-to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme. A sum of £2,300 was provided for this purpose. An application for funding to provide new premises has been received at a cost of £25,000 approximately. This application is under consideration by the Department. An application has been received for locum staff while CWOs are undergoing ISTS training at an estimated cost of £20,000. This matter is under consideration by the Department.
No application for an increase in the administration allocation of the North-Western Health Board in 1994-95 has been received.
What plans, if any, does the Minister have to reorganise the supplementary welfare allowance scheme? During the debate on the Social Welfare Bill I referred to two persons in my constituency in receipt of a reduced rate of disability benefit, one of whom has to visit the local community welfare officer each week and who receives £40. This will continue indefinitely as long as this person continues to receive disability benefit. It is regrettable that this person who worked for most of his life and who, through no fault of his own, became ill, must queue for two hours to receive £40.
The Deputy is referring to a specific case which is worthy of a separate question:
I raised this matter during the debate on the Social Welfare Bill but received no reply.
The Deputy is going from the general to the particular. This is not fair.
Does the Minister have any plans to reorganise the supplementary welfare allowance scheme? I understood that community welfare officers dealt with emergency cases but their work is now permanent in nature. This is most unsatisfactory and contributes to the costs to which the Minister referred.
That question relates to a different matter; this question relates to the administration costs of health boards. If the Deputy tables a question I will be more than happy to deal with it.
I am sure the Minister could answer it if he wanted to. Community welfare officers spend half their time dealing with administration work. The Minister should not avoid the question.
There is no need for an exchange at this time.
The Deputy can table a question on that matter if he wants to and it will be answered.
Given that the cost increased from £7 million in 1989 to £56 million this year does the Minister accept that the workload of community welfare officers has increased dramatically and that resources should be made available? Does he further accept that because many applications for additional staff from health boards are being refused it is not possible to carry out the required assessments of applications and that the cost of employing additional staff will have to be met directly from the existing allocations to health boards, many of which are underfunded?
As I indicated in my original reply, the administration costs of the supplementary welfare scheme were capped by the Department of Finance in 1988 and, if I am not mistaken, the then Minister for Finance was a member of the Fianna Fáil Party. Since then any increase in this area, apart from the annual inflator applied, requires the sanction of the Department of Finance. The effect has been that the administration cost as a proportion of the money spent on supplementary welfare allowance has fallen from about 20 per cent to about 10 per cent this year. Bearing in mind that the administration cost of the Department of Social Welfare as a whole is only 5 per cent of total expenditure, the administration cost of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme is considerable. It is understandable given that it is very much a labour intensive scheme and that the community welfare officers are senior officers.
There is an issue to be resolved in terms of the administration of the scheme and that will be addressed in due course. It cannot however, be addressed by simply increasing the amount of money for administration when there is so much demand for increasing the amount paid to people in need. That is where the increases should be considered.
When the Minister was in Opposition he paid little heed to sanctions imposed by the Minister for Finance. Is this not a typical case of being penny wise and pound foolish? In many instances the investigations carried out by overworked community welfare officers are minimal and many people benefit from this scheme who, under closer scrutiny, would not be entitled to some of the payments they are receiving. Given that the Minister has admitted this is labour intensive work, it is important that more staff are employed to evaluate fully what is a very expensive scheme.
I disagree that the answer to the problem is simply to give more money——
I did not say that; I suggested closer scrutiny, which cannot be done under the present system.
The answer is not simply to pump more money into the present administration system. We must consider the current functions of community welfare officers to see whether some of them should be more correctly carried out by the Department of Social Welfare, local authorities or health boards. That obviously requires an in-depth look at the whole area of supplementary welfare payments, which are basically a safety net for people in dire need who cannot get money anywhere else. It is not a simple matter of increasing administration funding but of considering the way the schemes are administered.
The Minister referred to the Eastern Health Board, the Midland Health Board, the MidWestern Health Board and the NorthEastern Health Board and said that the North-Western Health Board was the only board that had made no application for additional administration funding. He did not refer to the Southern Health Board, the South-Eastern Health Board and the Western Health Board.
In the case of the South-Eastern Health Board a payment of £11,000 was made in 1994. The Southern Health Board applied for £763,000 and the application is under consideration. The Western Health Board applied for an increase of £261,852 for administration and sanction was received from the Department of Finance for the payment of £94,000, the amount due in respect of pension removal costs. A sum of £4,600 was paid to that health board in respect of new accommodation.
