Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014 will give effect to a number of important social welfare and pension reforms. The Bill amends the Social Welfare Consolidation Act of 2005 to provide for the transposition of certain aspects of EU Directive 2010/41/EU dealing with the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity in a self-employed capacity and ensuring that the spouse or civil partner of a self-employed worker can benefit from social protection in accordance with national law. This is a very important reform and essentially means that a group of people who had previously been excluded from contributory State pensions will be able to qualify, over time, for pension cover in their own right. This will ensure equality of access to social insurance cover for the self-employed and assisting spouses and civil partners, as required under EU law. In the case of women, they will also be able to qualify over time for maternity benefit. I welcome this legislative development and I am very pleased it is proceeding. The Minister deserves considerable credit for ensuring it is being provided.

Amendments to the existing legislation are also being made to strengthen the residence requirements relating to entitlement to social assistance payments and child benefit, strengthen control of social welfare expenditure by extending the powers to recover social welfare overpayments, and make a number of other changes to the social welfare code.

In terms of the EU directive, the Bill will extend social insurance cover to spouses and civil partners of a self-employed contributor in cases in which the spouse or civil partner is participating in the person's business and earning more than €5,000 per annum. This means the spouse or civil partner will, under the social insurance system, be able to establish entitlement to maternity benefit, widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's contributory pension and contributory State pension in his or her own right.

In terms of amending and strengthening the residence requirements relating to entitlement to means-assessed social welfare payments and child benefit, under the amended legislation, a person must be habitually resident at the date of application for the relevant social welfare payment and throughout the period that payment is being claimed to remain entitled to the payment. This will mean that the person is residing in Ireland and has a proven close link to the State. This measure is being taken to preclude any possibility that individuals no longer resident in Ireland will be able to continue to claim social welfare payments after they have left the country. The vast majority of people are honest, regardless of where they come from, and this type of welfare fraud is not widespread. Nevertheless, it is best to ensure it can never occur because the social protection budget needs to be protected to the greatest possible extent to ensure it serves those who need it most.

Separately, the Bill will ensure that, in general, once a family qualifies for family income supplement, payment of the supplement will continue for 52 weeks, regardless of any change in circumstances that may arise, including where weekly earnings increase. Family income supplement is highly important to working families and the purpose of the measure is to ensure that families in receipt of the supplement have security and peace of mind about the length of their payment. It is a weekly tax-free, top-up payment for workers on low pay with children. More than 44,000 working families, including more than 98,000 children, benefit from the scheme. The Department's expenditure on family income supplement will increase to more than €280 million this year, bringing the increase since 2012 to 25%.

The Bill also extends the powers of the Department to recover social welfare overpayments. The vast majority of those in receipt of payments receive only the payment to which they are entitled. However, cases of overpayment arise through error and, in a small number of cases, fraud. It is important that these moneys are recovered in order that the social welfare budget is managed appropriately and the money is spent on those who need it.

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