Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 20 Mar 2002

Vol. 550 No. 4

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

517 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the total number of persons who are claiming supplements in respect of rent; the number who are claiming supplements in respect of mortgages; the annual value of payments made under these supplements; and the trend in the value and number of claimants over the past five years. [8493/02]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

Under the terms of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on behalf of my Department by the various health boards, payment of a weekly or monthly supplement may be made in respect of rent or mortgage interest to any person in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs.

There are currently 46,633 rent supplements and 4,169 mortgage interest supplements in payment.

Details of the number of recipients of rent or mortgage interest supplements over the past five years and the associated expenditure are set out in the following tabular statement.

Expenditure on rent supplements has risen by almost 88% over the past five years. The continuing increase in expenditure in this area is due for the most part to sharp increases in the cost of private rented accommodation as the number of recipients was reasonably stable over the period. However, in the last quarter of 2001 and indeed since the beginning of 2002 there has been a significant increase in the number of claims in payment.

The total number of recipients grew by 3,257 or 7.6% in the six months to the end of February 2002.

In contrast, both the number of recipients and the expenditure relating to mortgage interest supplements have fallen by approximately 50% over the last five years. The two main factors for the reductions are the number of people who have returned to work and the fall in interest rates during the period in question. However, there has been a significant increase recently in the number of mortgage interest supplement claims in payment to people who hold mortgages other than local authority mortgages. There was an 11% increase in the number of such recipients in the six months to the end of February 2002.

Rent Supplements

Weekly No. of recipients	Annual Expenditure
		£m	€m
1997	*40,000	75.3	95.61
1998	*40,000	88.0	111.73
1999	41,873	101.0	128.24
2000	42,683	118.6	150.59
2001	45,270	141.3	179.41

Mortgage Interest Supplements

Weekly No. of recipients	Annual Expenditure
		£m	€m
1997	*8,200	10.1	12.82
1998	*6,300	9.1	11.44
1999	5,108	6.5	8.25
2000	4,243	4.6	5.84
2001	4,099	5.0	6.35

* Due to the ongoing computerisation of supplementary welfare allowance during 1997 and 1998 the figures for the number of recipients are estimates which were derived from a mixture of computer and manual records.