Vol. 481 No. 5
14 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the proposals, if any, he has to substantially improve payments to those old age pensioners receiving payment from his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16419/97]
19 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has in the December 1997 and subsequent budgets and in view of the commitment in An Action Programme for the Millennium to increase the social welfare old age pensions to £100 per week; if he intends to increase the widows contributory pension to that rate also; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16497/97]
29 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has in the December 1997 and subsequent budgets and in view of the commitment in An Action Programme for the Millennium to increase social welfare pensions to £100 per week; if he will increase the widows non-contributory pension to that rate also; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16498/97]
35 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has in December 1997 and subsequent budgets to increase the old age contributory pension to £100 per week in line with the commitment in An Action Programme for the Millennium; the total cost involved for each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16495/97]
39 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs when it is intended to increase the old age pension to £100 per week; if it is intended that this figure will apply to all old age pensioners; the annual percentage and monetary increase needed to achieve this target over five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16436/97]
44 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has in the December 1997 and subsequent budgets to increase the old age non-contributory pension to £100 per week in line with the commitment in An Action Programme for the Millennium; the total cost involved for each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16496/97]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 14, 19, 29, 35, 39 and 44 together.
The Government acknowledges the special place of the older people in the community and the contribution they have made towards our current favourable economic position. In recognition, the Action Programme for the Millennium proposes a significant package of improvements to repay their efforts.
Many people still rely totally on the social welfare pensions for their income in retirement and this was one of the reasons why a key priority of the Government action programme is substantial social welfare increases, including increases in the old age contributory pension to £100 per week over our five year term of office. This commitment is being examined in the context of formulating proposals for the 1998 budget. The question of improving payment rates for other categories of social welfare pensioners for example, old age non-contributory pensioners or widow's and widower's (contributory and non-contributory) pensioners, is also being examined in a budgetary context.
The position of pensions, both social welfare and occupational, and pensioners generally is also being considered in the context of the national pensions policy initiative and the Pensions Board will be submitting their report to me on this initiative before the end of the year.
An annual increase of approximately 5 per cent would be required to progressively increase the old age contributory and retirement pension from its present rate of £78 to £100 over a five year period. Alternatively, the £100 rate could be achieved by providing flat-rate annual increases of £4.40 over the five years at an additional full year cost of £37.36 million in each year. The cumulative full year cost over the five year period would be £186.78 million per annum.
