Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
Richard Bruton
Ceist:
331
Mr. R. Bruton
asked the
Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs
if his attention has been drawn to the fact that persons on one parent family allowance, whose children reach 18 and are not in school, find that their five day part-time job will exclude them from unemployment assistance no matter how small the earning; and if he will have arrangements made that those leaving one parent family allowance can retain the disregard of their part-time earnings when they go on to unemployment assistance.
[15331/99]
The purpose of the one-parent family payment is to provide income support to people who, for a variety of reasons, are bringing up a child or children without the support of a partner. The additional costs faced by people in such situations is reflected in the application of significant income disregards in the means test governing entitlement to the payment.
Entitlement to the OFP ceases when the child(ren) reaches the age of 18 in cases where the child(ren) does not continue in full-time education.
The Deputy will be aware that entitlement to unemployment assistance is dependent upon the claimant being capable of, available for and genuinely seeking full-time employment. The introduction of income disregards to the UA scheme to cater for a situation where a person is engaged in part-time work for five days per week would therefore be at odds with the nature and purpose of that scheme.
Róisín Shortall
Ceist:
332
Ms Shortall
asked the
Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs
his views on whether the living alone allowance is adequate to meet the extra costs of a single income household compared to a multi-income household; the reason the current rate has been settled as the appropriate amount; the plans, if any, he has to increase this amount; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[15407/99]
The living alone allowance is an additional payment, of £6.00 per week, to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare type payments and who reside alone.
There has been some debate, in the past, in relation to targeting the allowance. For instance, the Commission on Social Welfare, 1986, recom mended that it be integrated with the basic payment and phased out as that payment level was increased. The National Pensions Board, 1993, considered that it should be retained, while the Pensions Board in its 1998 report, Securing Retirement Income, on the national pensions policy initiative viewed the allowance as a contribution towards the additional costs of a specific contingency and considered that it would be misleading to take full account of this in arriving at a target rate.
In line with this Government's commitment to a strong social welfare pension based on social insurance, including the achievement of an old age pension rate of £100 per week by 2002, I have concentrated on improving the personal pension rates of our older people. This is the most effective and equitable way of ensuring that their position is improved. In this regard, an important step towards achieving this objective was taken in budget '99 which delivered weekly increases of £6.00 in personal pension rates – well above the average inflation rate and, when taken together with the improvements in budget 1998, representing an increase of £11 per week since this Government came into office.
Pensioners have also benefited substantially from the package of measures introduced over the lifetime of this Government, for instance, a £3 weekly increase in the qualified adult allowance payable with old age, retirement and invalidity pensions; a £3 weekly increase in the personal rates for other social welfare recipients under 66 years, together with a £2 increase in the qualified adult allowance; a major package of improvements for carers costing £18 million in a full year, including the introduction of an annual once-off payment of £200 towards the cost of respite care; the introduction of a special 50 per cent pension for certain self-employed people who were aged 56 and over in April, 1988 and who have at least five years' PRSI contributions since then; the payment of arrears on a sliding scale on late claims for contributory pensions made pre-January, 1997; and a five-fold increase in the death grant from £100 to £500 to assist families in the payment of funeral expenses, at an extra cost of £10 million in a full year.
Issues relating to the treatment of different household types under the tax and social welfare codes are being examined, at present, by an interdepartmental working group which, it is expected, will report shortly.
Seán Haughey
Ceist:
333
Mr. Haughey
asked the
Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs
the reason an 18 year old sixth year student is designated as a dependant when his father claims the family income supplement and is not so classified when he claims unemployment benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[15415/99]
Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern): The purpose of the family income supplement (FIS) scheme is to provide an incentive to low-paid employees with families to take up or remain in full-time employment rather than availing of unemployment payments, and in particular, long-term unemployment assistance.
Child dependant allowances are payable in respect of all children up to the age of 18 years. Where a claimant is in receipt of a long-term social welfare payment, such as LTUA, child dependant allowances are payable where children are in full-time education up to the age of 22 years, or up to the end of the academic year after the 22nd birthday. This applies to long-term payments only; it does not apply to short-term payments such as unemployment benefit, disability benefit, short-term unemployment assistance and supplementary welfare allowance. The more favourable treatment of people on long-term payments is in recognition of the fact that families with children on long-term payments face a higher risk of poverty.
So as to ensure that the incentive provided by the FIS scheme is maintainedvis-à-vis LTUA, children aged up to 22 and in full-time education are also considered to be dependent children for the purposes of this scheme.
On a more general level, the Deputy will be aware that the thrust of child income support policy in recent years has been to target resources towards providing increases in child benefit, as part of a strategy aimed at ensuring that child income support is more neutralvis-a-vis the employment status of the parents. This policy direction has been continued in the 1999 budget with a full-year addition of over £40 million to bring total annual expenditure to £475 million on the child benefit scheme. From September of this year, the rates of child benefit will be increased by £3.00 per child per month for the first two children and by £4.00 per child for the third and subsequent children, bringing the rates up to £34.50 and £46.00 per month respectively.
