Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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6. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will report on the exceptional needs payments scheme; the amount of expenditure for the scheme for the years 2011, 2012 and to date in 2013; and if it is anticipated that there will be an increase in applications under the scheme when the bereavement grant ceases to exist in January 2014. [50606/13]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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As the Minister well knows, exceptional needs payments are very important discretionary payments designed to help individuals and families experiencing grave financial difficulties. The Minister recently stated that of the order of €35 million was spent on the exceptional needs payments programme last year. However, the budget for 2014 is going to be cut by €2 million. In addition, the bereavement grant is being abolished and this will lead to a so-called saving of €17 million. All of this is going to lead to many families being left in very exceptionally difficult circumstances.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment, ENP, to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her weekly income. The expenditure on the scheme in 2011 was €62.9 million, in 2012, €52.7 million was expended and some €31.8 million has been spent to date in 2013. An ENP is means tested and is payable at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, who take into account the requirements of the governing legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance. The ENP scheme is demand led. Examples of the main types of needs that are met under it include assistance towards new house kit-outs, funeral and burial expenses, the purchase of household appliances, clothing and child related items such as cots and prams.

To date in 2013, approximately 2,900 payments have been made in respect of funerals and burials at a cost of €3.9 million or an average payment of over €1,350. In determining an entitlement to an ENP for funeral expenses, the relevant Department official will take into account the circumstances of the individual applicant and that of the deceased person including any savings, property, insurance policies etc. The bereavement grant is a once-off insurance-based payment which is generally payable to applicants who are employed or self-employed. While there may be some increase in applications for ENPs for funeral expenses when the bereavement grant is discontinued from January 2014, I do not anticipate that it will be significant.

Our information indicates that a large number of bereavement grants went not to the members of deceased persons' immediate families but rather to other relatives. That is why I have concentrated on retaining the €6,000 payment for widows or widowers who have children.

The social welfare benefits of persons who have died continue to be paid for six weeks.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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As the Minister is aware, funerals cost between €3,000 and €10,000. People in Dublin West and Dublin North-East, the Minister's constituency and my constituency, respectively, have few means of addressing these costs. One way of doing so is to use rural funeral directors to try to introduce competition in the market. The Minister may recall that Deputy Maloney and I introduced a Bill on this very subject.

The Minister admitted the Department made payments of €4 million to cover the costs of funerals. Is the abolition of the bereavement grant not an egregious cut which will create additional pressure on people who have been bereaved?

The Minister is also cutting the exceptional needs payment. A Growing Up in Ireland report published the other day provided information on the position of families with children. It found that two thirds of families with children were desperately struggling to make ends meet and one third of them could not make ends meet. This is the cohort of the population with which we are dealing.

In the area of housing, the rental accommodation scheme has collapsed and housing benefit-----

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy may ask a supplementary question once the Minister has replied.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I emphasise that the Department provides an extensive range of supports to the immediate next of kin of people who have died. I refer to the important payments that are made to immediate families as opposed to more distant relatives such as cousins and siblings who may not have lived with the deceased. A significant number of bereavement grants were paid to people who were inheriting the estate of the deceased as they were paid into that estate.

The widow, widower or surviving civil partner of a deceased person receives a widow's or survivor's pension as a consequence of his or her partner's death. If there is a child or children, the widow or widower receives a cash payment of €6,000. Even in the context of the high cost of funerals, this is a significant payment. In addition, social welfare payments for the deceased person continue to be paid for six weeks to his or her immediate next of kin, for example, a widow or widower. This means, for instance, that the widow or widower of a pensioner who dies continues to receive the pension of the deceased person for six weeks after his or her death. In general, this amounts to a payment of approximately €1,300, which is significant.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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The bottom line is that the Minister is further cutting the exceptional needs payments this year. This will affect a large number of families, including those who need support with finding a deposit to rent a home. As I noted, the rent supplement system is breaking down and the rental accommodation scheme has collapsed in Fingal county, where our respective constituencies are located, and Dublin city. The Growing Up in Ireland study to which I referred shows clearly that families with young children are desperately struggling. At such a difficult time, the Minister has whipped away important funding from the exceptional needs payments system. Surely this will make matters much more difficult for vulnerable families in 2014.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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To date this year, my Department has paid €876,000 to help people buy prams, cots and buggies for new babies. The number of applications fell slightly in 2012 compared with 2011. As Deputies are aware, many claims for a social welfare payment are not processed for weeks. With the opening of the new Intreo offices, the largest of which is located in Coolock in the Deputy's constituency, claims for jobseeker's payments and so forth are being processed much more rapidly, frequently within one week. This means that dependence on special need payments, which was a feature of the earlier system, is diminishing in practice because people are receiving their payment faster.