Social Welfare Benefits.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 October 2009

Wednesday, 7 October 2009

Ceisteanna (78, 79, 80)

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

148 Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of applications for carer’s allowance, respite care, respite grant, unemployment benefit and jobseeker’s allowances received in each of the past two years to date in 2009; the numbers granted, refused or pending on a monthly basis in the same period; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34562/09]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Social and Family Affairs (Deputy Mary Hanafin)

The information requested by the deputy is contained in the following tabular statements.

Carer's Allowance 2009

	Registered	Awarded	Rejected	Pending Month End
Jan	1,558	1,130	610	3,200
Feb	1,377	1,261	190	3,036
Mar	1,661	756	247	3,605
Apr	1,233	669	378	3,655
May	1,625	1,396	622	3,062
Jun	1,444	894	466	3,014
Jul	1,618	1,225	587	2,683
Aug	1,083	588	477	2,581
Totals	11,599	7,919	3,577

Note: Numbers Pending at months end are not a sum of the above figures. Claims may be closed for a variety of reasons, for example if they are withdrawn.

Carer's Allowance 2008

	Registered	Awarded	Rejected	Pending Month End
Jan	930	1,136	187	5,903
Feb	2,122	1,791	322	5,723
Mar	1,418	848	284	5,978
Apr	2,105	1,467	301	6,226
May	2,015	1,324	476	6,326
Jun	1,480	1,141	316	6,254
Jul	1,584	1,509	486	5,748
Aug	1,640	1,451	779	5,015
Sep	1,462	1,183	179	5,035
Oct	1,738	1,210	682	4,767
Nov	1,588	1,730	609	3,832
Dec	846	667	394	3,569
Totals	18,928	15,457	5,015

Note: Numbers Pending at months end are not a sum of the above figures. Claims may be closed for a variety of reasons, for example if they are withdrawn.

Jobseeker's Allowance 2009

	Registered	Awarded	Rejected	Pending Month End
Jan	23,101	9,932	1,215	32,611
Feb	20,184	9,684	1,611	37,788
Mar	20,290	12,516	1,891	38,810
Apr	18,830	11,625	1,648	40,005
May	22,723	13,014	1,581	43,140
Jun	28,205	15,779	1,862	48,953
Jul	26,543	17,973	2,243	49,155
Aug	20,815	15,590	2,031	47,471
Totals	180,691	106,113	14,082

Note: Numbers Pending at months end are not a sum of the above figures. Claims may be closed for a variety of reasons, for example if they are withdrawn.

Jobseeker's Allowance 2008

	Registered	Awarded	Rejected	Pending Month End
Jan	13,398	6,950	966	12,656
Feb	11,770	7,161	1,181	13,005
Mar	10,042	5,263	958	14,332
Apr	11,339	7,140	1,382	13,863
May	12,253	6,662	1,244	15,087
Jun	15,279	7,898	979	18,444
Jul	16,771	9,953	1,396	20,151
Aug	13,037	7,898	1,061	20,982
Sep	16,252	9,390	1,417	22,162
Oct	17,453	10,100	1,339	23,632
Nov	17,578	10,721	1,339	24,903
Dec	14,707	10,386	1,299	24,529
Totals	169,879	99,522	14,561

Note: Numbers Pending at months end are not a sum of the above figures. Claims may be closed for a variety of reasons, for example if they are withdrawn.

Jobseeker's Benefit 2009

	Registered	Awarded	Rejected	Pending Month End
Jan	45,779	32,329	688	29,639
Feb	37,278	29,427	607	31,296
Mar	34,733	32,130	714	27,683
Apr	33,205	27,959	649	27,819
May	27,771	26,047	622	24,700
Jun	34,724	25,623	578	29,526
Jul	30,531	29,834	553	25,350
Aug	22,801	23,062	527	21,539
Totals	266,822	226,411	4,938

Note: Numbers Pending at months end are not a sum of the above figures. Claims may be closed for a variety of reasons, for example if they are withdrawn.

Jobseeker's Benefit 2008

	Registered	Awarded	Rejected	Pending Month End
Jan	25,685	20,707	578	12,292
Feb	20,469	17,851	592	11,470
Mar	20,502	13,549	540	15,797
Apr	18,275	19,272	622	11,244
May	19,084	15,275	510	12,106
Jun	27,200	17,426	476	18,776
Jul	27,413	24,772	590	17,584
Aug	20,310	18,014	470	16,941
Sep	24,441	20,776	573	16,910
Oct	29,899	22,217	1,050	19,602
Nov	29,911	28,025	667	16,525
Dec	31,691	23,587	465	21,071
Totals	294,880	241,471	7,133

Note: Numbers pending at months end are not a sum of the above figures. Claims may be closed for a variety of reasons, for example if they are withdrawn.

Respite Care Grant* 2009

	Registered	Awarded	Rejected
January	204	344	124
February	191	166	76
March	175	165	112
April	1064	93	46
May	3607	48	25
June	1,116	924	76
July	399	2,621	282
August	254	860	244
September	246	453	134
Total	7,256	5,674	1,119

Respite Care Grant* 2008

	Registered	Awarded	Rejected
January	206	482	97
February	260	238	69
March	212	154	125
April	1946	206	115
May	3719	114	107
June	1413	2227	205
July	590	2747	306
August	390	609	174
September	580	739	201
October	385	643	130
November	354	510	252
December	273	326	103
Total	10,328	8,995	1,884

*The total number of applications pending at end-September 2009 was 885. It is not possible to determine the number of applications pending on a monthly basis, retrospective to 2008.

Question No. 149 answered with Question No. 118.

Question No. 150 answered with Question No. 134.

Question No. 151 answered with Question No. 113.

Question No. 152 answered with Question No. 133.

Olivia Mitchell

Ceist:

153 Deputy Olivia Mitchell asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she favours the proposal to boost Irish tourism by offering free travel to British old age pensioners visiting here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32279/09]

Minister for Social and Family Affairs (Deputy Mary Hanafin)

The current free travel scheme operated by the Department provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. These include road, rail and ferry services provided by companies such as Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, as well as Luas and services provided by over 80 private transport operators.

While the scheme is free for those who are eligible, all of the transport companies involved, including CIE, are paid for the service by the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The estimated cost of the scheme in 2009 is €76.4 million. Any extension of the scheme to include other EU citizens would have considerable cost implications. Under EU law, it would not be possible to provide free travel only to British old age pensioners as this would discriminate on the basis of nationality.

Given the current economic situation, I have no immediate plans to extend the free travel scheme to British or other EU citizens in the absence of an agreed and appropriately funded EU wide reciprocal arrangement.

Question No. 154 answered with Question No. 134.

Question No. 155 answered with Question No. 108.

Liz McManus

Ceist:

156 Deputy Liz McManus asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans in relation to the abolition or amendments of entitlement to treatment benefit. [34413/09]

Minister for Social and Family Affairs (Deputy Mary Hanafin)

The proposal to discontinue or amend entitlement to the treatment benefit scheme will be considered as part of the Estimates and Budget process for 2010. This will include consideration of the report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes, and the decisions on all of the issues arising will be a matter for the Government. It would not be appropriate for me to comment further at this stage pending the outcome of these deliberative processes.