Vol. 537 No. 1
46 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will consider the extension of the living alone allowance to younger widows; and if he will give an estimate of the cost of this improvement. [15269/01]
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.
It is a recognition of the additional costs incurred by a person living alone due to the absence of economies of scale. At the end of April 2001 there were 91,538 people in receipt of a living alone allowance, 46,039 of whom were widowed people.
At the end of April 2001 there were 34,880 people aged under 66 in receipt of a widow/er's contributory pension. Approximately 10% of these have qualified children. In addition there were 2,970 people aged under 66 in receipt of a widow/er's non-contributory pension, none of whom would have children. All of the 1,300 widowed people in receipt of one-parent family payment have children.
Accordingly, there are approximately 34,300 widowed people under 66 years of age who do not have qualified children. It is not possible to determine the number of these who are living alone. However, extending the living alone allowance to the entire group would have a full year cost of approximately £10.7 million.
48 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the costs, numbers of citizens affected and take-up of benefits by farmers and workers affected by the foot and mouth crisis to date; and the likely overall effect on the social welfare budget from this source in 2001. [15284/01]
On Friday 18 May 2001, the latest date for which figures are available, there were 929 new claims which were recorded as resulting from the foot and mouth crisis recorded on my Department's claim management systems. This figure was made up of 655 claims for unemployment benefit, 178 claims for unemployment assistance, 78 claims for farm assist and 18 claims for unemployment credits. The figures peaked on Friday, 20 April, when there were a total of 1,031 claims recorded as resulting from the foot and mouth crisis.
It would not be possible to give the precise cost of the claims in question – many of the claims are still in payment and their durations cannot be determined at this stage. However, as an example, if the duration of all such claims averaged three months the cost would be in the region of £1.2 million.
Such costs, necessarily speculative at this stage, are of course not the full costs associated with the foot and mouth crisis.
Income from PRSI contributions is likely to be affected to some extent. It is also likely that the slower than normal seasonal decline in the live register this year is partly due to the adverse impact of the foot and mouth crisis in the tourism and other sectors.
However, the indications are that the effect on my Department's budget will be comparatively small and that it will be possible to meet any extra costs without recourse to a Supplementary Estimate.
