Dáil debates

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Social Welfare Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

3:20 pm

Photo of Noel HarringtonNoel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The family income supplement is one of the most progressive payments that the State has in its social protection arsenal, for want of a better word. I welcome the ongoing increase in the number of families which have claimed the family income supplement over the years. Up to 50,000 families now claim it. That is a positive policy in terms of social protection in that we are supporting parents who wish to work and who have two, three or four children but find that those associated expenses can be difficult.

I firmly believe that not enough families claim family income supplement. An information campaign by the Department would be very appropriate in this regard.

I wish to talk about features of the budget which do not appear in the Bill but which merit welcoming. The almost complete restoration of the Christmas bonus to what it was before the crash is most welcome at a difficult and expensive time. The extra €2.50 for the 26 weeks for which the fuel allowance is payable is a modest increase but, again, sends a message to recipients of social protection that fuel costs and fuel poverty are issues that need to be dealt with.

I will use my contribution to make some suggestions and pose some other questions to which the Department might respond - perhaps in the Minister's closing address or subsequently. I have some concerns about means testing for allowance payments. I want to give two specific examples. One concerns a building worker who has intermittent spells of unemployment, who lives with his aging mother and who started building his own home before the collapse. This house is substantially constructed but will not be habitable for years. It is essentially valueless because under the terms of his planning approval, the individual cannot sell it but must reside in it for seven years after its completion. However, it is valued in terms of his social protection payments and the net result is that he receives the princely sum of €38 per annum despite the fact that he has an asset he cannot deal with and is effectively in limbo. We need to deal with that issue.

The second case is of a man left severely disabled after an industrial accident who has been refused any payment because he has been left a one third share in a house in Germany that his two siblings are not willing to sell. He has no income from the property and is denied any access to social protection. I am highlighting these two examples because the Department needs to demonstrate more flexibility and understanding in how it deals with our citizens.

Before the telephone allowance was abolished, the Department would have sought preferential rates from the operators for senior citizens. The Department has the clout to again fight on behalf of social protection recipients and negotiate fairer terms with all utility providers. Could the Department be proactive in looking at this issue?

The tracking of applications, appeals and target dates to be processed is a minor issue but one that causes Members of this House great difficulty. Officials in the Department are very helpful and I have never come across any official who did not want to be helpful but constantly telephoning Department offices looking for the status of an application is a huge strain on our and their resources. With the IT systems that are available now, we should be able to log on in a similar fashion to Passport Express and have a look at the status of an application. It would save a lot of time and resources over time. The Department should look at this issue in the near future.

I have come across a number of issues regarding the administration of the carer's allowance. The concept of only being allowed to work for 15 hours per week only allows someone to work for a day and a half. The individual is obviously allowed to work for a day but they cannot work for two days or do two shifts. It is a shift and a half. I ask the Department to have a look at this and to bring it up a couple of hours to allow possibly two eight-hour shifts or two full days for those on carer's allowance and carer's benefit to allow them to work a couple of extra hours in the week. A shift and a half is halfway across the river and is on neither bank. Those on carer's benefit are on it for a limited period of time and people receiving it may suddenly lose it before they are put on to carer's allowance. Clients on carer's benefit should receive notification at least two to three months in advance of the cessation of their carer's benefit so they are given enough time to apply for carer's allowance.

I wish to refer to an issue that is topical at the moment, namely, media reports on the fishing industry. One of the great difficulties people in the fishing industry face is that despite the fact that they work all the time, they do not always get a wage. It depends on their catches. Whatever they do or do not get, I can tell the House what they do not get. They do not get social protection. They have no safety net whatsoever and I ask the Department to engage with the industry once again to see if a proper and workable scheme could be introduced to help those who work in difficult circumstances in the fishing industry.

I will be a bit parochial. I am a postmaster. Decisions taken by the Department of Social Protection about the way it administers payments always have a severe effect on the post office network. I ask the Department officials to reflect on the schemes they administer and to reflect on the net effect on the post office network throughout the country if they decide to move to cashless payments or to incentivise payments through other sources.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak. I commend the Minister and Minister of State on their work to date.

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