Results 26,701-26,720 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: I welcome it. If somebody is 18 years of age in February but they are still under 19, would they start getting paid from 3 September onwards?
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: On the working family payment, people getting employment of any type is much more preferable as a system than jobseeker's allowance and all these combinations. I think the Minister knows that that interface of low-paid people is inhibiting people from working. Has analysis been done to work out what kind of costs would be associated with extending the income limits for the working family...
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: Have the numbers in receipt of this payment increased? Have we any idea of whether it would cost an awful lot of money if we were to increase the threshold a bit more?
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: I know it does but you have to subtract from the increase in the threshold the increase in the wages. I am wondering what would happen over time.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: Is the number of people on the scheme increasing dramatically?
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: How does that compare with when it started?
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: Have the numbers gone up? That is the point I am trying to get at.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: It would be desirable for them to have gone up.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: All I am saying is that this is a very attractive, positive scheme that encourages work. For a long time, and well before I was in politics, this interface between welfare and work was a concern to me. Sometimes the welfare system was an inhibitor to work. This is one that always encourages people to work. The more it is the scheme of choice for people rather than jobseeker's' benefit and...
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: This is what I am saying. I have a suspicion but I cannot prove it with regard to the cost of it, that as wages go up, the amount of money goes down and therefore it might not be as expensive as it looks. The more generous we are with it, the greater the incentive to take a job in the lower end.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: On looking at the little booklet the Minister has supplied to us today, which we deeply appreciate, the statistics for 2022 are a mine of information.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: If I have read the booklet right, the working family payment cost €415 million in 2016 and the scheme cost €361 million in 2022, which is the last year to feature in the booklet.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: I find the numbers interesting, as there were 57,000 recipients in 2016, and 47,000 recipients in 2022, which is a decrease. To me, the decrease seems to have been caused by increased wages or salaries that people are paid. The scheme seems to have a good scope and I am curious to learn whether, when budget 2024 was being prepared, there was a projection as to how many people would be...
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes, but does the Minister accept that while somebody could come up with a fantastic scheme, the problem is getting there? I ask that any changes made are incremental, rather than adopting a big-bang approach where we would have to rip up the whole system and replace it overnight.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: I mean that the Minister should know where she is trying to get to and she will get there over time, by adjusting schemes like means-testing, the jobseeker's allowance, the working family payment, etc. We should get there that way, rather than in a big bang where we eliminate the old system and some day bring in a basic income system or whatever.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes, incrementally.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: I really appreciate that, as I was going to ask the Minister about that later. Does she think that she will then legislate and make regulations later in the year?
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: There is one curious thing. From 2016 to 2022, the number of one-parent families getting the working family payment increased from 28,000 to 29,000 while the number of two-parent families getting it decreased from 29,000 to 18,000. The loss has been entirely among two-parent families rather than one-parent families.
- Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)
Éamon Ó Cuív: That is what I am saying. That means this scheme is not costing more in real terms, so a lot more generosity can be afforded.