Claire Kerrane
Ceist:1. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an update on the processing of additional needs’ payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6031/23]
Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions
Community Welfare Services
I ask the Minister to provide an update on the processing of additional needs payments. These payments are typically made in emergency situations to people who are struggling financially. It is clear that processing times have reduced and I imagine they have reduced significantly which is welcome and important. Will the Minister please provide an update on processing times at the moment?
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The community welfare service is committed to providing a quality service to all citizens, ensuring applications are processed and decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. The purpose of an additional needs payment is to assist with essential once-off expenditure which people could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income.
In 2022 97,224 additional needs payments were issued at a total value of more than €58 million. The increase in the number of additional needs payments follows an extensive communications campaign designed to increase the awareness of its availability to support people. In recent weeks, the number of additional needs payments issued by the Department has returned to levels seen pre-pandemic. This is likely to be influenced in part by the issuing of eight lump sum payments, designed to assist with the cost of living, totalling more than €1.2 billion.
Additional needs payment applications are varied and often quite complex, reflecting the individual circumstances being experienced. They cover a range of needs from supporting payment of a utility bill which might not be due for a number of weeks; to providing assistance with funeral expenses; to providing immediate support to help a family buy groceries. Where it is clear that a person has an urgent or immediate need, every effort will be made to ensure the claim is processed on the same day. Community welfare officers, CWOs, are experienced and can generally assess when a case is so urgent that it requires an immediate response. Approximately 10% of community welfare payments to customers across the country are made on this basis, which shows how responsive the service is to an urgent customer need. There are no backlogs at present for less urgent claims and work on hand is within the scheme's normal processing levels. Complete applications are finalised within two weeks and less than two weeks' work is currently on hand.
The Minister's update and the two-week processing time are welcome. In September I received a reply to a parliamentary question stating that 95% of applications were taking between five and eight weeks to be processed. I appreciate CWOs are stepping in where they can and where the person in need can access them in the first place, which has become more difficult.
I would argue that few additional needs payments are less urgent as they are payments for an emergency, typically for a one-off need, especially in recent months with the way energy prices and bills have increased. It is important we keep a close eye on the continued processing of additional needs payments, particularly as we are seeing surveys and reports, such as the one issued by Barnardos yesterday, showing growing food poverty which should be a matter of concern for everyone in this House. Clearly, the budget, lump-sum payments and so forth are not enough for many families. We saw that in the survey yesterday. I ask the Minister to keep a close eye on processing. Will she also give an update on putting the payment online?
As we all know, CWOs do everything they can to help people. We absolutely value them and the delivery of this service is a priority for me and for my Department. I want to ensure people can get support when they are in need. That is why we had the major communications campaign to raise awareness of the availability of the additional needs payment. In 2022 97,000 applications were made.
A freephone service is available for people who cannot make it to the office. There are a number of different ways in which people can apply for the payment. They can do so online, as I said, a national freephone contact line is available, they can go the Intreo offices which are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week, and in exceptional circumstances, if people need someone to call to their houses, it can be arranged. The CWO will call out to see them. My Department is working on an online additional needs application process via the mywelfare.ie system. The provision of the additional needs payment online application will ensure that those who wish to access the scheme online, including providing supporting documentation, will be able to do so. It is expected the online option will be up and running by the end of quarter 1. I am aware the Deputy raised this matter with me previously and I have followed up on it.
Last July I suggested that it go online and I welcome that it will. One of the issues the Minister and others have raised, as most Deputies on this side of the House will acknowledge, is that where people make applications and submit supporting documentation that is either not good enough or is needed again, it has delayed their receipt of payments. I acknowledge that. I hope that with the online system, all supporting documentation will have to be uploaded and people will not be able to submit applications until that is done. That is welcome.
It is highly unlikely that everyone on this side of the House who has raised significant issues about accessing CWOs is wrong. I do not think we are. The Minister said she values CWOs. Will she tell us whether she has engaged with them since the rise in additional needs payments? What I and others in opposition are hearing on the ground about accessing them contradicts what the Minister has been saying. Has the Minister engaged with them, given how much she values them? I acknowledge that she does.
We have provided additional staff for the service. There are currently 412 people across all grades in the community welfare service. In light of the increased level of applications and as part of the budget, we have secured agreement for approximately 74 additional staff to be assigned to the community welfare service. Recruitment has commenced for these additional staff and it is anticipated they will be in place in the coming weeks, by the end of quarter 1 of 2023. In the interim, until those staff have been recruited, 30 social welfare inspectors have been temporarily reassigned to the community welfare service to assist with claims-processing since the beginning of November. There are no backlogs at the moment. We have managed to clear them. A lot of work went into it. There was an increase in the number of applications as a result of our extensive promotional campaign telling people this support is available. We have managed to reduce the waiting times significantly and applications are being processed. In cases where there are delays, it is generally because some of the information has not been provided. We give people time to provide the information in a humane way. Sometimes they simply cannot get the information or they do not understand it is required.
Social Welfare Payments
Seán Sherlock
Ceist:2. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Social Protection if income disregards could be reviewed for the purposes of assessment of means for carer’s allowance, with a view to ensuring that the income of a spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant where they work overtime, would not disbar an applicant for eligibility for the carer's allowance. [5993/23]
I ask the Minister for Social Protection whether income disregards could be reviewed for the purpose of assessment of means for carer's allowance with a view to ensuring the income of spouses, civil partners or cohabitants, where they work overtime, will not disbar an applicant from eligibility for carer's allowance.
The Government recognises the important role family carers play in Irish society and is fully committed to supporting them through a range of payments and services. For this reason, the annual carer's support grant, which is paid in respect of each care recipient, is not means-tested and is not taxable. The grant is currently paid at a rate of €1,850 per year, which is the highest rate at which it has been paid since it was first introduced in 1999.
As part of budget 2023, I announced a range of measures directly benefiting family carers, particularly in light of the current cost-of-living crisis.
In addition, in response to carer organisations and the voices of family carers, significant changes were made to the carer's allowance means test in recent years, notably as part of budget 2022. The capital and savings disregard for the carer's allowance means assessment was increased from €20,000 to €50,000, aligning it with that which applies for disability allowance. The weekly income disregard was increased from €332.50 to €350 for a single person and from €665 to €750 for carers with a spouse or partner. As a result, following these changes, carer's allowance disregards are the highest income disregards in the entire social welfare system, with the result that a two-person household, such as that referenced in the Deputy's question, can now earn about €39,000 per annum without their carer's payment being affected.
While I understand the Deputy's concern, I also have to have regard to the needs of other welfare recipients and how best we can allocate our resources given competing demands. I have, therefore, committed to a carrying out broad review of means testing this year which will include, but not be limited to, carer's allowance means test provisions.
The Minister will be aware of the specific case to which I referred, even though I have anonymised the details. I welcome the fact the Minister will carry out a review. I take her at her word in that regard.
I acknowledge the fact the Government has increased the income disregard from €665 to €750 for a couple. The scenario I am talking about involves a couple where there were two parents, one of whom is working while the second forgoes a career to care for a son or daughter and also forgoes a lot of opportunities, and does so absolutely willingly. The person then finds that because they are locked out of the system and because of an increase in income due to overtime, all other benefits accruing to the family are lost. It is those small exceptions in schemes that we are speaking to here. A small number of couples throughout the country are affected by this. It is to be hoped they will be included in any review that the Minister undertakes.
I thank Deputy Sherlock. I know the case he has raised with me, and I understand the point he is making. From a social protection perspective, income is income and means tests are based on income. As I said, we are going to do a review of all the means tests because some, in terms of capital, are around €20,000, a figure that has not been changed in a long time. I expect to be in a position to increase that because €20,000 would buy one a car years ago but would not buy much now. That is the reality of the world we live in. I am happy to look at that.
One of my priorities since I became Minister for Social Protection is to do whatever I can to support our carers because we all know the huge work they do and the contribution they make to our society. In my first budget, I increased the carer's support grant. In budget 2022, I was the first Minister in 14 years to make changes to the carer's means test. This year, I ensured carers got the special €500 carers support grant before Christmas. They also got double payments in October and before Christmas.
The incremental, but substantial, improvements made under the Minister's mandate are acknowledged. The scenario I am talking about is where a spouse has to work all of the hours God gives them to bring income into a family while their spouse is caring for a person, but all of a sudden the income is gone. It puts tremendous pressure on the family. If something could be done in respect of the income disregard I would welcome that. I would be happy to furnish the Minister with further details of this particular family's circumstances in the context of the review she will carry out, with a view to her potentially considering that family's scenario. I am sure it is typical of many scenarios throughout the country.
As I said, the review of means testing will look at everything. It is income. It is like the SUSI grant, where parents work extremely hard all of the hours God sends them in preparation to send a child to college. Suddenly the parent is assessed on the previous year's income, which they had worked so hard to get. Unfortunately, when we have means testing there will be cut-off points. In changing the system, I raised the limit to the €750 mark. That change included a lot more people. However, when there is a cut-off point somebody is going to lose out. I understand the situation the Deputy is talking about.
In terms of carers, I would also like to see the HSE and the Department of Health step more into this space. I cannot pay people for the work they do; I can only support them in terms of their income. We should consider how we reward carers for the work they do.
The Minister is in government.
I cannot be across every Department.
Social Welfare Code
Claire Kerrane
Ceist:3. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an update on the implementation of the recommendations made by the child maintenance review group, including the removal of child maintenance as household means for social welfare payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6032/23]
I want to ask the Minister about the implementation of the recommendations from the child maintenance review group, especially the recommendation on the removal of child maintenance being treated as household means when it comes to accessing and retaining social welfare supports. Can the Minister provide us with an update on the legislation and when she expects to bring it to the House? It is obviously a very important piece of legislation and an important recommendation made by the group.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The child maintenance review group was established in 2020 to prepare a report on the current treatment within the Department of Social Protection of child maintenance payments, the current provisions relating to the liable relatives regarding child maintenance and the establishment of a child maintenance agency.
These are very significant reforms of the social welfare system which will be of great benefit to lone parents. Introducing these changes requires amendments to primary and secondary legislation, the details of which are currently being examined. The reforms will also necessitate changes to some of my Department's systems, application forms and processes.
Some of what the Minister said regarding what the Department is doing, instructed by her, is really welcome. While the Department is not obliging parents to prove or show proof that they have sought maintenance, in practice is maintenance still being used in meeting the calculation of the lone parent payment?
There was no agreement in the review group regarding the possibility of setting up a child maintenance service. It is important for the Minister to clarify her position regarding the possibility of such a service being established because, as she said, any changes that are made, and it is important they are made, do not remove the obligation on the non-custodial parent to maintain his or her child. This is what the legislation states. How are we going to support lone parents to ensure that happens and how do we do it outside the court environment, which is a difficult one for many lone parents?
The reforms will necessitate changes to some of my Department's systems, application forms and processes. I must make amendments to primary and secondary legislation. I am doing it on an administrative basis regarding the liable relative and the need to show proof you are seeking maintenance.
The Department needs to distinguish between child and spousal maintenance, something which is not done at the moment, so my officials are working on advancing the various implementation issues to ensure early implementation of the reforms. We are doing what we can on an administrative basis but in terms of the means test, we must go through that and bring forward legislation, which I want to do as quickly as possible. There are a few issues we need to look at because legislation is complex and we might need to make adjustments in a number of different places. I will come back to the Deputy regarding child maintenance.
I appreciate that the Minister wants to see this legislation brought forward as quickly as possible, as do I and the rest of the Opposition. It is really important that these changes are made and they will make a difference to lone parent families. The Minister said the liable relative unit provision has been discontinued. What does that mean in practice for the unit? Will it be abandoned altogether? I appreciate the Minister cannot give a definite date but does she foresee this legislation being introduced in the first quarter of this year?
As I said, we are working on it and will bring it in as soon as possible. I cannot give a timeframe at the minute because there is a bit of work to be done on it.
The Deputy asked me about the child maintenance agency. There was no consensus among the group regarding the establishment of a child maintenance agency. Even among members of the group who supported the establishment of such an agency, there were differing views about its role and remit as well as important constitutional concerns. The group examined the international position and after significant research, found that different countries have different arrangements. Unfortunately, there is no one perfect solution.
Even if an agency was to be established, there would still be a significant role for the courts in terms of the difficult issues of enforcement and arrears. The Minister for Justice is planning significant reforms in the family justice area. I am particularly pleased that the family justice strategy includes a commitment to undertake a review of the enforcement of maintenance orders in the first half of this year. That is the important thing. If you are supposed to pay maintenance, you should pay it.
I would like to see a system whereby maintenance could be deducted at source but, again, it is something that must be teased out. Under such a system, no matter where you go, the maintenance is taken from your income. That would cut out a lot of administrative nonsense and having to go in and out of court. We want to stop that so if we could tie that up, it would make a difference.
Child Poverty
Gary Gannon
Ceist:4. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will outline the steps she intends to take to eradicate child poverty. [6395/23]
What steps does the Department intend to take to eradicate child poverty, particularly in light of the Taoiseach's remark that a unit would be set up in his Department to combat child poverty?
The Government is committed to the reduction of all forms of poverty, particularly, child poverty, as outlined in the programme for Government and the roadmap for social inclusion 2020 to 2025. Poverty is multidimensional and requires a whole-of-government approach. While income supports are important, access to affordable services such as housing, health, childcare and education are also critical.
Budget 2023 provided a social welfare package worth almost €2.2 billion, which included a range of measures to support children. In addition to the one-off measures paid last year, personal rates of payment on working age schemes have been increased by €12 per week. In addition, the rates of payment for a qualified child has been increased to €42 per week for a child under 12 and €50 per week for a child over 12. I have also significantly increased funding for the school meals programme in recent years. More than €94 million has been provided for school meals in 2023, which is up from approximately €68 million in 2022. These are in addition to other Government measures such as the reduction in childcare costs and the commitment to introduce a free school book scheme for primary school pupils from this autumn. I have just set out in the previous question the benefits that will follow on from changes arising from the work of the child maintenance review group.
The current national child poverty target requires a 66% reduction in the number of children in consistent poverty by the end of 2020 from its 2011 level. Between 2011 and 2021, the consistent poverty rate fell by 4.1 percentage points from 9.3% to 5.2%, so we can see that the measures taken to date have had a positive impact, although we still have further to go.
The roadmap for social inclusion commits us to setting a new child poverty target. My Department and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth are working together to progress this in the context of the development of a new policy framework for children and young people.
Finally I should mention that the Taoiseach is establishing a new child poverty and well-being unit in his Department. The aim of this new unit is to build on what has already been achieved and provide greater focus on improving the lives and well-being of all children in Ireland.
When we ask these questions, we get to throw the ball in the air and the Minister gets to tell us all the great things the Government is doing. It is just the nature of them.
You forget that though.
Exactly. However, 163,936 children in this country still live in consistent poverty according to the data presented last year. These are children without access to two warm coats and if their shoes are damaged, their parents are unable to replace them. Regardless of whether the child goes hungry, there is certainly an adult in his or her house who does.
I welcomed the fact that when the Taoiseach assumed office a couple of months ago, he said he would take this issue seriously. I had a funny image in my mind because he then had a meeting in Davos with Keir Starmer where they were going to talk about child poverty.
Child poverty is corrosive to the human condition. While I understand the measures the Minister is taking, income supports are what we need. I appreciate that welfare supports went up by €12 in the last budget but it is not enough. When will we see income supports going up towards the minimum essential standard of living, MESL, so that welfare supports in this country are not based below a line that automatically places not only the child but his or her family into poverty? Until we address that, all the targeted measures are not going to come to much.
As I said, since 2011, the number of children in consistent poverty has fallen by 45,000 to 62,000 in 2021 and the consistent poverty rate has fallen to 5.2%. I am not disputing that we need to do more but we were making progress. However, we were suddenly faced with a cost-of-living crisis. The Deputy can appreciate that we now need to focus on that. This crisis has had an impact and we need to focus on it. The new child poverty and well-being unit will be established in the Department of the Taoiseach in the first quarter of 2023. The Government is committed to reducing child poverty, as outlined in the programme for Government and the roadmap for social inclusion.
However, poverty is multidimensional and requires a whole-of-government approach to provide the necessary supports. We have increased the qualified child allowance for the past three years and expanded the free school meals programme.
I appreciate fully that poverty is multidimensional. I hope it goes across all Departments. The Ombudsman for Children asked for a child poverty strategy to be embedded in all Departments and I welcome this call.
At its basis, poverty, whether that is childhood poverty or the poverty of a family, is about what a person is being asked to go without, such as food, warm clothes, shoes or the capacity to go to the cinema. That comes down to income.
People have a right to be supported by the social welfare system. When will we see a social welfare rate that enables the child, and the family from which that child comes, to remove themselves from that capacity to go without? Within the lifetime of the Minister's Government, will welfare rates go towards the minimum essential standard of living, MESL, that is required? Until we get to that point, all the cross-departmental supports, which are welcome, will not matter a dot if we are still asking families in this country to go hungry. That is the essence of the matter.
There are other issues as well, as we know, such as the hot school meals programme, one support that is making a significant difference in children's lives in terms of food poverty. I visited a school in Inchicore yesterday and attended an event to encourage children to grow their own. It related to Tidy Towns, which we were promoting in the school. I asked the principal whether the school had the hot school meals programme and he said it could not do without it. We are supporting that and I have expanded it-----
The Minister had to ask whether the school was part of the programme. Action to alleviate poverty cannot be based on a roulette wheel of which schools have hot meals and which do not.
My point is that just over two years, there were 30 schools in the programme, whereas 500 schools now get hot school meals, which is making a significant difference to children's lives. It is better for their educational attainment and, as the principal said, it makes such a difference to the children. I want to see it expanded because it is a great scheme.
I assure the Deputy the Government is totally committed to addressing the issue of child poverty. The Taoiseach has set up a special unit in his Department and by doing that, he can ensure all the Departments will feed into it. He and the Minister for Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth have met some of the stakeholders to discuss the issues.
Community Welfare Services
Paul Murphy
Ceist:5. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection the steps she is taking to ensure that community welfare officers are readily accessible to all who need them, and that additional needs’ payments are processed promptly; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6337/23]
Question No. 5, in the name of Deputy Paul Murphy, will be taken by Deputy Boyd Barrett.
As the Minister knows, huge numbers of families are being hammered with the cost of living, energy costs, food prices and so on, and the centrepiece of the Government's response to that has involved telling people to get exceptional needs payments. Pre-Covid, if you needed something like that, you would have a face-to-face meeting with a community welfare officer, CWO, whereas that is no longer the case. As a result, people desperately in need of support have nobody to talk to, and that needs to be remedied. It is a criticism not of any of the staff but rather of the lack of staffing and the lack of front-line personnel to deal with vulnerable and desperate people.
Community welfare officers are physically on site daily in more than 50 Intreo centres, where they are available to be seen without an appointment during business hours Monday to Friday. In addition to meeting citizens in the Intreo centres, branch offices and Department of Social Protection offices, community welfare officers can facilitate an appointment within a short time after someone requires such a meeting at an agreed location, including a person's home.
Staffing levels have been maintained in the community welfare service nationwide in recent years, even during times when demands on the service decreased. This reflects my commitment to continuing to support the delivery of locally based services to clients. Currently, 412 people across all grades are working in the community welfare service, including 323 community welfare officers.
Due to the increased number of applications received, agreement was reached with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform for approximately 74 additional staff for the community welfare service. These staff will be at all grades and will increase the capacity of community welfare officers to focus on making decisions relating to complex applications and meeting clients locally as required. Recruitment has commenced and I expect the additional staff will be in place during quarter 1 this year. In the meantime, the Department has assigned an additional 30 staff to the service.
There are no backlogs of additional needs payment applications at present and work on hand is within the scheme's normal processing levels. Complete applications are finalised within two weeks and there is currently less than two weeks' work on hand. Where it is clear a person has an immediate need, every effort is made to ensure he or she will receive a payment on the same day. Approximately 10% of community welfare service payments to customers are made on this basis.
We ran an extensive advertising campaign to make people aware this is the safety net to be used whenever help is needed. A lot of applications have come in and I am glad because that is what we want to see. We processed 97,000 applicants in 2022 alone and we have put more resources into the service. We are committed to providing this service, which is so necessary.
I will give the Minister some examples, the first of which involves a couple in their 60s. The husband, who used to work, developed early-onset Alzheimer's disease. They were on a big top-up arrangement, which people on the housing assistance payment, HAP, should not have to pay, and as a result they fell into arrears, given the cost-of-living hikes. We eventually got an exceptional needs payment for them but it was not enough because at no point could they meet an individual to explain the complexities of their case. The Minister said unscheduled meetings with CWOs are available, but I am afraid that is not true. I tabled a question about the hotline that can be called, which she will come to later in this session. If you call that hotline, you will encounter very nice people at the other end of the phone but they are not community welfare officers. They are people who will send you out forms to be filled out. There have been a number of cases of desperate people who did not get their exceptional needs payments until after Christmas, so had very little money, and they would not have got them without the assistance of my office.
I can give another example of a man whose wife has cancer. He cannot turn down the heating but, because she is on illness benefit, he is not entitled to the fuel allowance or the additional needs payment. These are difficult, complex circumstances for vulnerable people and they need to be explained to a human being. That is not a criticism of the staff. It is a criticism that there has been a change in the availability of human beings to talk to in the community welfare service.
If the Deputy wants to give me those details, I will follow up on them and find exactly what the case was. There have been other incidents where people have come forward with details, and when I looked them up, I discovered they were somewhat different from what was initially anticipated. While I fully accept the bona fides of the cases the Deputy raised, I would like to look into them to see exactly what happened because we have put every effort into reducing the length of time within which a decision is made.
Community welfare officers are available to meet people. They can do so by appointment and there is no problem in doing that. If members of the public visit an Intreo office, they can meet the officers face to face. We have increased the number of staff in the offices and, as I said, we processed 97,000 payments last year. That is a lot of processing. There is no backlog and we are down to two weeks. While some cases will take slightly longer, that is most likely because applicants have not got all the information they need. Each case is individual. As I said, I will be happy to look at the two specific cases the Deputy brought to my attention.
If I can help progress those cases, I will certainly send them to the Minister. My point is that many of the cases of desperate people are complicated. The case of somebody who has fallen into arrears on his rent because he is paying a HAP top-up, that is, someone whose wife has Alzheimer's disease, who used to work and whose HAP tenancy is based on an income he no longer has, is complicated. It is very difficult to explain on a form or a phone call. You need to be sitting with an individual to explain those complexities. The same is true of a person who is receiving long-term illness benefit when, arguably, he should be on a different payment, and so on. These are complicated cases.
The Minister suggested it is easy to get a face-to-face meeting with a community welfare officer, but that is not the experience we are getting. Sometimes it is not possible even to get one at all.
I do want to acknowledge that, when our office gets on to divisional management, it can be very helpful, but without our assistance, many of those people would not have got payments at all. There is something wrong with staffing levels that we cannot have the availability of more face-to-face community welfare officers who are easily accessible.
We have increased the number of staff. There is a full-time community welfare officer present in more than 50 Intreo offices nationwide, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. I accept there can be some very complex cases but the majority, 80% of cases, are processed in a short time. That is an indication of the service we are providing. There may be some complex cases. I am happy to look at the two specific cases the Deputy mentioned to me. We can discuss them later and I will get the details. Much of the evidence I am getting is anecdotal and I need to see the specific cases. If people have cases they want to bring to my attention, I am happy to look them up and find out exactly what happened because I want to make sure people get the service. We have an increased number of applications and approximately 74 staff to be assigned to the community welfare service. Recruitment has commenced. In most cases, they receive their payment within two weeks provided they have all the information they need. That is a big improvement on where it was.