Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe I mentioned earlier that, under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act, people who are entitled to receive employment or unemployment benefits are stipulated to be between the ages of 18 and 66, the pensionable age. On becoming 66, a person becomes pensionable and receives his or her payment. On the first question the Deputy asked me, if somebody is not in receipt of a pension, he or she should apply for one. There were cases of people in receipt of payments less than the full contributory pension who have lost their income in recent weeks. We have reviewed the cases and given them a full non-contributory pension. There is only a €5 difference between that and a full contributory pension. Absolutely anybody else who has outgoings in excess of the income deemed necessary for him or her to live is being looked after by the supplementary welfare scheme. We changed the means test conditions at the beginning of our issuing of the pandemic unemployment payment to take this matter into account. Normally, it is a question of allowing people to leave alone means in the bank and allowing them, just based on their income, to be helped by the State regarding their outgoings. The Deputy mentioned he has a number of constituents whom he believes have applied but who have not been helped. If he wants to give the names to me, I can certainly examine the cases but our doors are open. Our community welfare officers have all been instructed to help as many people as they can in as many ways as they can. Many of our schemes, including the one-parent family scheme, have changed. We have tried to be accommodating. We have not quite thrown out all the rules but we have been as flexible as possible to ensure we leave nobody behind regarding income supports.

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