Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the directives that she has given in relation to the clothing grant which community welfare officers issued under their exceptional needs payment scheme. [11641/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. The Government has provided over €47 million for the scheme in 2013. Exceptional needs payment are payable at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case in order to ensure the payments target those most in need of assistance. There is no automatic entitlement to a payment or predetermined amounts under the different categories for exceptional needs payments.

Weekly social welfare payments should cover normal clothing needs. However, in exceptional circumstances support is available for clothing under the exceptional needs schemes. The Department has recently issued recommendations to officers administering the scheme including guidance amounts for payments in respect of child and adult clothing. For 2013, the Department has recommended that only in unforeseen and exceptional circumstances should the payment of an allowance in respect of clothing be made and has recommended a maximum payment of €100 for adult clothing and €50 in respect of child clothing. The January 2013 consumer price index indicates that the overall cost of clothing and footwear has fallen by over 36% in the last number of years.

Persons who consider they have an entitlement to a special needs payment should contact the local social welfare officers administering the scheme.

I have set out a table that shows the total amount spent in the past two years on adult and child clothing, religious ceremonies, prams, buggies and cots. The table may be helpful to the Deputy. It also shows the average payments.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Last year, we had a long discussion on this matter when a question arose about religious ceremonies. However, this is not the reason that I have tabled this question. The directive has taken effect in the past month or two. Some people, especially pensioners, availed of a payment once per year. There is a lie in the statement where it refers to people being reasonably expected to pay for clothing or so on out of their social welfare payments, be that cost €100, €150 or whatever figure the Minister devised. Given the cuts to different elements of supports for pensioners in particular, they have less disposable income than used to be the case. This also applies to those who depend on social welfare.

Will the Minister indicate whether community welfare officers will not enforce a blanket refusal for people who approach them for clothing grants under the exceptional needs payment scheme, given that fuel prices have increased, the fuel allowance has been cut and there have been cuts to other allowances that cover increasing costs?

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I must call on the Minister to reply.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Would such a blanket ban not exclude some people from day-to-day life, given that this is a social inclusion payment and is meant to ensure that people can at least dress comfortably, or hopefully not in a fashion that could be considered rag and bone? They have an ongoing dependence on this payment. I do not have a major problem with a cut, as it is means tested. The community welfare officers should be taking these matters into account instead of cutting.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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In fairness, this is Question Time.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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As the Deputy correctly stated, community welfare officers have discretion. Since entering the Department of Social Protection, they have been working to share and collate data on how these payments are dealt with across the country. In our discussion last year, I told the Deputy of my surprise that there was an average payment of €300 in respect of holy communions in some areas such as Dublin whereas such payments were not made in other parts of the country. As the Deputy knows, there is no such scheme in the North.

These special payments are given to people in the context of special needs that arise. The suggestion is that such a payment would be in the region of €100 for an adult and €50 for a child. The payment is partly in respect of clothing. As I am sure the Deputy is aware, there has been a significant reduction in recent years in the cost of clothing in shops and stores throughout the country. That reduction has been remarkable in many ways. I have accepted the recommendations made by people involved in the community welfare service.

The Deputy will find that the staff of the Department of Social Protection are always prepared to give their full consideration to specific cases of hardship. In addition to these payments for clothing, we also provide payments to people experiencing difficulties in meeting funeral costs or in kitting out their houses and so on.

It is a not inconsiderable total spend of €47 million, which I expect Deputy Ó Snodaigh will agree is a very significant amount of money. It is interesting that other jurisdictions, including where Sinn Féin is in government itself in the North, do not even have such a scheme, but people pay for it out of their much lesser social welfare payments that apply in the United Kingdom and the North of Ireland.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The effect on the ground of the changes referred to by the Minister is that there is now a blanket refusal by community welfare officers. It is not just the case that they can take the situation into account and that the payment is means-tested. The situation North and South is not comparable by any stretch of the imagination. It is a pity that every time the Minister replies to me she tries to distort the position. We are dealing with questions relating to this State. Can the Minister guarantee that €47 million will be ring-fenced for exceptional needs payments for this year so as to ensure that not just those who seek clothing grants, but those seeking other help will have some recourse to a saving that will help them get out of the hole the Government and the previous Government have put them in, given the effects of all of the other cuts on those people’s lives?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I gave the Deputy the amount that is provided for in the Estimate, which is €47 million. That is a significant amount. In 2011, approximately 49,000 people got assistance with clothing. In 2012, a total of 51,914 people got such assistance. I do not fully understand the reason the Deputy suggests that there is no provision now because there is a provision in the Estimates for €47 million. Perhaps he would give me the details.

It is important that Members such as Deputy Ó Snodaigh would appreciate that we are borrowing money to pay for social protection. We do that because it is important for our citizens. However, it is equally important to be conscious of those who are lending to us, which includes the United Kingdom. That jurisdiction makes the point on such payments that it does not pay it at all and that social welfare payments there are well below the level at which we make social welfare payments. The United Kingdom does not make any provision under this particular heading.

I have not even mentioned the significant amount my Department also spends in exceptional cases of flooding. It is not included in the figure. In those cases we renew clothing, bedding, household goods and other items which have been destroyed by flooding. That is something else with which community welfare service officers deal. Deputy Ó Snodaigh’s suggestion that community welfare officers no longer make any payments is incorrect. The evidence shows that 51,000 payments were made last year-----

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I did not say that.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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-----for clothing and footwear, and 49,000 payments were made in the previous year.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister should be allowed to conclude.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister should not misrepresent what I said.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I do not understand the basis of Deputy Ó Snodaigh’s argument that payments on the ground have stopped. I am sorry, but that is not true.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Clothing grants have stopped since January.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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We must move on to Other Questions. Question No. 85 is in the name-----

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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On a point of information-----

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I am sorry, no. We are moving on to Other Questions.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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-----they are the figures for last year.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I am not the only one standing up.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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We are on Other Questions now. I am speaking to everyone.