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Social Welfare Benefits.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 November 2004

Wednesday, 10 November 2004

Ceisteanna (41, 42, 43, 44)

Damien English

Ceist:

85 Mr. English asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the details of the pilot programme planned for certain persons on disability allowance; if this pilot programme has commenced; the results of same and future plans he has for the programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28129/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Disability allowance is a weekly payment made in 2003 to over 67,000 people with a disability in 2003 at a cost of over €460 million. Recipients must be aged 16 years or over and under age 66 years. The disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to both medical suitability and a means test.

A pilot project to support people with disabilities will commence in early 2005 based in the Midlands Health Board area — counties Longford, Westmeath, Offaly and Laois — of the country to address the important issue of how persons in receipt of this payment might be better assisted into employment. The pilot project is being undertaken in association with FÁS and the Midland Health Board and marks an important step in exploring a more integrated employment support approach for people with disabilities.

The project will facilitate localised responses to the identified needs of those considered suitable for the project based on an inter-agency approach. It will initially deal with existing customers of disability allowance between 18 and 25 years of age and this phase is expected to take six months to complete. Based on the initial outcomes of phase 1, phase 2, dealing with new entrants to the scheme, will follow for a further six month period. A range of existing employment supports are available to people with disabilities and these are provided on a multi-agency basis. These functions have, thus far, generally operated independently of each other. The initiative will pilot a more co-ordinated support approach for people with disabilities.

Based on an analysis undertaken by my Department, there are some 6,467 persons between 16 and 25 years of age who are in receipt of disability allowance who are not regarded as having disabilities which are profound in nature. The initial target group will be drawn from this cohort.

The specific objectives of the project are to: provide an integrated point of contact for persons with disabilities and a multi-agency examination of their training and employment support potential; facilitate participation in training and employment supports by addressing the needs of groups with high risks of poverty, that is, people with disabilities; reduce social welfare dependency and create economic independence for individuals with disabilities; examine the nature and extent of existing supports used by various providers to assist people with disabilities to progress to employment or other opportunities; analyse and benchmark the outcomes of the pilot against previous approaches. The pilot will allow for better use of existing training-employment supports services and schemes that are provided by the relevant agencies concerned.

The pilot and its follow up will play an important role in the development of policy for people with disabilities, particularly in reaching their full potential through employment.

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

86 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will consider substantially increasing child benefit with a view to meeting the child care requirements of parents in today’s workforce; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28133/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Seán Ryan

Ceist:

112 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when he will honour the long held but as yet undelivered commitment to deliver a series of child benefit increases over a three year period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28196/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

203 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will favourably consider substantially increasing child benefit as a means of addressing the child care issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28460/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

I propose to take Questions Nos. 86, 112 and 203 together.

The policy direction followed by successive Governments has been to concentrate resources for child income support on the child benefit scheme. Child benefit is neutral vis-à-vis the employment status of parents and, therefore, does not contribute to unemployment or poverty traps. It delivers a standard rate of payment in respect of all children in a family regardless of income levels or employment status.

Child benefit supports all children and assists those on low incomes more in relative terms. It is not intended primarily to meet child care costs but to provide assistance generally to parents in the cost of raising children, regardless of the household's income or employment status. In this way it does not distort parental choice in respect of labour force participation and contributes towards alleviating child poverty. The concentration of additional resources in child benefit avoids the employment disincentives associated with increased child dependant allowances and has underpinned the policy of successive Governments since 1994.

In budget 2001, the Minister for Finance announced a multi-annual programme of increases in child benefit to the value of €1.27 billion over three years. This was subsequently extended to five years, to be completed in 2005. Over the period since 1997, the value of all social welfare payments has increased in real terms. In particular, the monthly rates of child benefit have increased by €93.51 at the lower rate and €115.78 at the higher rate, increases of 246% and 234% respectively, compared with inflation of 26.9%. This level of increase is unprecedented and delivers on the Government's objective of providing support for children generally while offering real choice to all parents.

Looking ahead, my priorities include making further progress on our child benefit strategy along with the other commitments on social welfare contained in Sustaining Progress, the national anti-poverty strategy and the programme for Government. The question of further rationalisation of child benefit will be a matter for consideration in a budgetary context and in the context of priorities generally.

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