Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 113, 118 and 169 together.

The living alone allowance or living alone increase as it is now known, is an additional payment of €7.70 per week to people who are in receipt of certain social welfare type payments and who live alone. The increase is intended as a contribution towards the additional costs people face when they live alone. The policy in regard to support for older people has been for many years to give priority to increasing the personal rates of pension in addition to enhancing the household benefits package and other supports rather than supplementing the living alone increase. The objective is to use resources to improve the position of all pensioners to the fullest extent possible.

The results of this policy can be seen in the most recent results from the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions, SILC, which show that the position of older people improved significantly from 2005 to 2006 with the "at risk of poverty" rate falling from 20.1% to 13.6% and the consistent poverty rate falling from 3.7% to 2.1%. This latter result indicates that we have met the target set in the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion. Furthermore, the number of people aged 65 and over at risk of poverty was significantly lower than the figure of 17% for the general population. These figures do not take account of the significant increases in pensions in the 2007 and 2008 budgets so the position can be expected to improve further.

In Budget 2009, we have provided for increases of €7 per week in the personal rate of pensions. This is broadly in line with inflation and so will maintain the real value of pension payments and protect the very significant progress we have made in recent years in reducing the poverty risk for all older people. While I acknowledge the overall and positive impact of increasing the resources of all pensions, I am also conscious of the particular difficulties which older people face when living alone. I intend to keep this matter under review.

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