Ms Gr?inne Loughran:

I thank the Senator for the questions. First, with regard to the additional means payments and supplementary welfare and means and savings, a significant proportion of older people we work with have some savings set aside for their funeral costs. Often, on the basis of those savings, their applications for additional welfare payments are rejected. That is something we have come across time and time again, despite the fact that in many cases these savings are relatively small. About half of older people living alone have savings of less than €8,100. It really is just that payment set aside for funeral costs, etc. That is something that we would really like to see change.

Access to community welfare officers was mentioned as well. We have seen over the last number of years that it is getting more difficult to access community welfare officers, to get appointments, to get in contact, and then to hear back eventually as well. Additional welfare payments are not means-tested as such but they do take into account your means and all the various income you have. It is a very sliding scale. In some areas we work very closely with community welfare officers but elsewhere it is not the case. It really depends on the area.

Second, on the fuel allowance and SEAI grants, we have previously raised them with the Department of the environment because while the fuel allowance is a qualifying payment, the pension is not, and the living alone allowance is not. This is despite the fact that older people live in the oldest and coldest homes and are really most in need of those fully-funded grants. We work with many people who are not eligible for the fuel allowance or who are just over that threshold and who then cannot access a grant for love nor money. We have recommended that the fully-funded upgrades are made to everyone in receipt of a State pension but qualifying for the fuel allowance is really important in that. As we stated, as lots of people were not aware of the threshold change in recent years, they have not applied for the fuel allowance, which then has knock-on effects.

On the increase for a qualified adult and the non-contributory pension, we raised Vera's story in our opening statement. In Vera's case, more than 60% of her husband's pension is being spent on his and her nursing home fees, which leaves her with very limited means for survival. She does not have access now to a non-contributory pension or the carer's pension, despite spending more than 20 years looking after her husband at home and receiving carer's benefits for the same. She raised a family of seven children but she is an anomaly in the system. She does not have access to the non-contributory pension, the living alone allowance or others. In addition to the difficulty when it is whether to choose the increase for a qualified adult or the non-contributory pension, some people do not have that choice because they are that anomaly in the system. I wanted to raise that issue as well.

Finally, on that centralisation of social welfare payments, the digital divide has been raised quite significantly already, and the ability to access. People are generally sent to mywelfare.ie now for any information about payments. We see ourselves that there are so many intermediary organisations, whether it is ourselves here today, the Deputies and Senators here providing information, Citizens Information, or any of those other organisations that provide information on the entitlements that people should be able to access. There is an awful lot of manpower going into this, yet somehow we have not yet consolidated or streamlined those means tests and we are delighted to see that there will be some look at so doing.

How much money and time could be saved and spent on all our jobs and the work all the organisations have to do if it was easier to access the payments to begin with?