Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Many speakers spoke about pensioners. If one partner of a pensioner couple dies, their spouse continues to get the social welfare payment of the deceased spouse for six weeks. That is worth roughly €1,200 to €1,400 depending on the rate the person receives. The second and the biggest payment the Department makes is in respect of a person who becomes widowed who is entitled to the widow's contributory pension either on their or their spouse's contributions or on the basis of a non-contribution pension if their means are not sufficient. In terms of the social welfare budget, approximately €1.3 billion a year is currently spent in that respect. It is a very significant amount of money and again we have kept all those core payments intact.

Second, a widow, widower or surviving partner who has a dependent child or children, up to the age of 18 or in full-time education up to the age of 22, receives a cash grant that is not means tested of €6,000. Those are significant supports to the immediate next of kin of the person who has died. I hope that Deputies agree that the immediate next of kin of the person who has died, particularly the widow, widower or the dependent children, are the people who should receive the most significant level of help. That is the way the Department has done it and will continue to do it. Where a person dies in an accident, an accident funeral grant of €850 is paid and that grant will continue to be paid.

A number of Deputies raised another issue at different points in time, namely, that for the past number of years, including this year, the Department will spend just over €5 million on funeral expenses in respect of approximately 2,500 funerals. I advise Deputy O'Dea that the average support given by the community welfare office in Limerick to people who are in the distressful situation that he correctly described of having very limited means is around €1,500. Unfortunately as the Deputy is aware there have been many deaths of younger people in Limerick, leaving widows behind and people who have been in receipt of social welfare, as has the spouse or the partner who has died.

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