Vol. 508 No. 1
696 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the proposals, if any, he has to ensure that those who are on unemployment benefit will receive the same Christmas bonus as those on unemployment allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18099/99]
An amount of £42 million is provided in my Department's 1999 Estimates to provide for payment of a Christmas bonus for approximately 715,000 recipients of long-term social welfare payments.
This estimate is based on the payment of a bonus similar to the bonus paid in 1998 and earlier years, that is 70 per cent of the person's normal weekly payment subject to a minimum payment of £20.
The bonus is paid to recipients of the following payments, namely, disablement pension, death benefit, by way of pension, old age contributory and non-contributory pension, retirement pension, invalidity pension, widow's and widower's non-contributory pension, orphan's contributory and non-contributory pension, pre-retirement allowance, blind pension, carer's allowance, one parent family payment, unemployment assistance at the long-term rate, disability allowance, payments to people formerly in receipt of deserted wife's benefit and allowance and prisoner's wife's allowance.
698 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if a person (details supplied) is entitled to a full old age pension; when the internal report into giving credit for pre-1953 stamps will be issued; and if its finding will be implemented in the forthcoming budget. [18211/99]
In relation to the person concerned, she qualified for an old age contributory pension at the weekly rate of £83.70, the rate appropriate to a yearly average of 31. As the Deputy will be aware, a yearly average of 48 or over is required to qualify for a maximum rate pension. There are no social insurance contributions recorded on her behalf from 1956 to 1971 which is the reason for her reduced yearly average and rate of pension. However, she is already in receipt of a widow's contributory pension at the maximum weekly rate of £82.10 and, when combined with her derived entitlement to a free fuel allowance of £8 per week, it is more beneficial to her to remain in receipt of this payment.
The review referred to by the Deputy is now nearing completion. As I have previously stated on many occasions, this is a general review of the qualifying conditions for the old age contributory and retirement pensions which is in line with this Government's commitment to address the issue of people who fail marginally to qualify for an old age contributory pension. The review is, therefore, paying particular attention to the operation of the yearly average qualifying condition. Clearly, any changes to the fundamental basis of a scheme involve a cost factor and, as with all improvements to social welfare schemes, these will have to be considered in a budgetary context and in the light of available resources.
699 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will introduce an amendment to apply the sliding scale for adult dependant earnings between £60 and £90 to invalidity pension in the same way as it applies to disability benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18306/99]
In November 1997 I introduced regulations which allow for the tapered withdrawal of the qualified adult allowance for people getting unemployment benefit, unemployment assistance, disability benefit, disability allowance, pre-retirement allowance, injury benefit and unemployability supplement whose spouse is earning between £60 and £90 per week. Last week, in line with a decision announced in the last budget, I signed the regulations extending these arrangements to cover spouses' incomes of up to £105, with effect from early October 1999.
I will continue to seek to improve these arrangements as resources permit. The question of extending the arrangements to include other schemes, including invalidity pension, will be considered in that context.
