Vol. 513 No. 1
608 Mr. Lawlor asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will change the financial and other provisions for carers following concerns expressed by the representative body for carers in the home (details supplied). [1554/00]
610 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the proposals, if any, he has to improve the situation where senior citizens, who are caring for disabled offspring, are denied a carer's allowance due to the fact the means test is so stringent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1630/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 608 and 610 together.
The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to people who are providing certain elderly or incapacitated persons with full-time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit.
As with other social assistance schemes, a means test in which the income of both the applicant and his-her partner is assessable is applied to the carer's allowance to ensure that limited resources are directed to those in greatest need. The means test has been eased significantly in the past few years, most notably with the introduction of disregards of the income from employment and other sources. In line with budget 1999 changes which came into effect last August, the first £150 of joint weekly income for married carers is not taken into account in the means test. In the case of single carers, the first £75 of weekly income is disregarded.
The review of the carer's allowance, which was published in October 1998, noted that the means test applied to the carer's allowance is one of the more generous tests in terms of the assessment of household income. While the review did not recommend the abolition of the means test, it did propose the introduction of a continual care payment in certain circumstances in recognition of the caring provided.
The rate of the carer's allowance will increase in May this year by £4 per week for recipients of the allowance who are under age 66 and by £7 per week for those who are over age 66. This is an increase of 5.2% and 8.6% respectively on the 1999 rates.
609 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the fact that, following his decision to increase the death grant by £1,000, there have been suggestions in the media that undertakers have taken the opportunity to increase fees; if he has satisfied himself that these increases are justified on grounds of cost and not simply in response to the existence of a higher level of State grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1628/00]
The bereavement grant of £500 is intended to assist with funeral costs and is payable on the death of an insured person. The scheme, which was introduced in February 1999, replaced the death grant scheme of £100 and eased the qualifying conditions for entitlement. Almost 17,000 people benefited under the scheme in 1999.
In the recent budget I announced the widowed parent's grant of £1,000 which is a new scheme designed to assist with the income support needs of widows and widowers with dependent children in the immediate aftermath of a bereavement. It is payable to those who qualify for a widow/er's contributory pension, one-parent family payment or a bereavement grant. It is estimated that about 1,500 widowed people will benefit from this grant each year.
The Department has been monitoring the cost of funerals since the introduction of the bereavement grant last year and is also in contact with The Irish Association of Funeral Directors – IAFD. To date there is no evidence that funeral costs have increased as a result of the introduction of the bereavement grant; however, the situation will be kept under review.
611 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the proposals, if any, he has, additional to the measures announced in the budget, to improve the situation of widows or widowers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1631/00]
The widow(er)'s pension schemes recognise the particular financial diffi culties that arise for people following the death of a spouse.
The qualifying conditions for the widow(er)'s contributory pension scheme are more flexible than those applying to the old age and retirement pensions. Widowed people can qualify by using either their own or their late spouse's social insurance record. In addition, a person may also use the full social insurance record or the record over the previous three or five years.
As I indicated in my budget speech and following the review of the action programme for the millennium, this Government is committed to extending a pension rate of £100 per week to all social welfare pensions for older people. In this regard, from May 2000, the weekly rate of the widow(er)'s contributory pension will increase to £89.10 per week for those aged over 66. The maximum rate for a person aged under 66 years will be £81.10.
A widow's and widower's non contributory pension is available to those, without children, who do not qualify for the contributory pension. This is payable subject to a means test.
From May 2000 the maximum rate of the widow(er)'s non contributory pension will be £85.50 per week for those over age 66 and £77.50 for those aged under 66.
Title to these pensions also gives access to the free schemes, where the person is over 66 years of age. In this context, special measures are in place to ensure that households do not suffer the loss of entitlements following the death of a spouse. Widows-widowers aged from 60 to 65 whose late spouses had been in receipt of the free schemes retain that entitlement.
Widows and widowers with children who do not qualify for a widow/er's contributory pension can qualify for the one-parent family payment, the rate of which will be £85.50 per week for those over 66 and £77.50 for those under 66 with effect from May 2000. It is available to both men and women who are parenting alone and is designed to, first, provide basic income support, taking into account the special needs and requirements of single parents and, second, to encourage lone parents to return to the workforce so that, over time, they can achieve a greater degree of economic independence. To this end, an earnings disregard of £115.38 per week is available under the one-parent family payment means test to those lone parents in employment.
In the 1999 budget I introduced the bereavement grant which increased the payment on the death of an insured person from £100 to £500. This payment benefited almost 17,000 people last year. I announced a widowed parent's grant of £1,000 in the recent budget to provide additional support for those with dependent children in the immediate aftermath of a bereavement who qualify for a widow/er's contributory pension, one-parent family payment or a bereavement grant. The grant is expected to benefit about 1,500 widowed people each year.
612 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs when an oral hearing will be scheduled for a person (details supplied) in County Mayo to finalise her appeal for the carer's allowance. [1634/00]
The person's application for a carer's allowance was disallowed by a deciding officer on the grounds that the appropriate residency conditions were not satisfied in her case.
Her appeal against that decision to the social welfare appeals office has been considered by an appeals officer who has decided that an oral hearing is appropriate in the case. This will be arranged as soon as possible.
613 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the proposals, if any, he has to allow caretakers in schools to continue to receive payment of unemployment benefit for more than 390 days where the grant from the Department of Education and Science is only sufficient to employ them for less than a full week; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1754/00]
The regulations governing the award of unemployment benefit provide, among other things, that a person must have sustained a substantial loss of employment in any period of six consecutive days to be eligible for payment. The regulations also provide that for a loss of employment to have been sustained there must also have been a reduction in earnings.
In accordance with these regulations, a claimant of unemployment benefit is regarded as having sustained a substantial loss of employment if he or she has lost at least one day of insurable employment from that which is deemed to be his or her normal level of employment, coupled with a loss of earnings.
These measures were introduced following on the extension of PRSI to cover part-time workers in 1991 and were necessary to ensure that the conditions of the scheme remained consistent with its primary objective, which is to provide a replacement income to persons who have lost their full-time jobs. There are no plans to amend these measures.
In the case cited by the Deputy, the conditions relating to substantial loss of employment would not be satisfied and, accordingly, there would be no entitlement to unemployment benefit.
