Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 18 January 2024
Public Accounts Committee
Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Social Insurance Fund 2022
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 13 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 14 - Ex gratia Payments of €1.4 million to Social Welfare Branch Managers
Chapter 15 - Raising Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 16 - Recovery of Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 17 - Actuarial Review of the Social Insurance Fund
9:30 am
Ms Teresa Leonard:
The overall cost of the household benefit package is €294 million. That is the allocation for 2024. As of December 2023 we had 521,753 people in receipt of the household benefit package.
The rate of electricity and gas of the package equates to €1.15 per day, paid monthly. There is no increase in electricity in the household benefit package in this budget. The criteria for the household budget have actually expanded. The travel package, as the committee knows, has a huge number of people on it. There is well over 1 million people and when dependants are added, more than 2 million people are involved. I will have to verify that figure for the committee. There will be changes coming to it this year. People who cannot drive because of illness will be added to it. That is being introduced this year from July. This will bring in an additional number on to the free travel package, as well.