Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

My question to the Minister of State concerns a particular case of a married couple. The husband is in receipt of an old age contributory pension, and claims qualifying adult allowance for his wife. Their joint income is €298.80. In October they qualified for the medical card, under the medical card income guidelines. It has come to my attention that because of the budget increases, that couple may be over the income limit for the medical card as they are now in receipt of a total income of €322.10. Will the Minister of State clarify the position? Does he analyse the situation in the same way? It is a matter of concern. A few months ago, when the income guidelines were announced, the couple qualified for the medical card. However, the social welfare increase made a couple of months later means they are outside the income limits.

Since formulating the question, I examined this issue and found other incidents where people qualified for the medical card or the GP visit card on a social welfare income in October 2005 but, following budget increases, are now outside the income guidelines. A married couple aged under 65 years, where the husband is in receipt of an invalidity pension and claims qualifying adult allowance for his wife, had a total income of €264.30 before Christmas. That brought them within the medical card income guidelines limit of €266.50 for a married couple up to 65 years. The new social welfare rates introduced in the budget mean their income is more than the medical card income limits as they are in receipt of €293.50. That is made up of €171.30 for the claimant and €122.20 for the qualifying adult.

Another example is a married couple aged between 66 and 69 years where the husband was in receipt of the old age non-contributory pension and claiming qualified adult allowance for his wife. That is made of €166 for the claimant and €109.70 for the qualifying adult totalling €275.70. That would leave them under the medical card income guidelines of €298 for a married couple aged between 66 and 69 years. However, with the new social welfare rates following the budget, the claimant will have an income €182 and the qualifying adult will have an income of €120 totalling €302. That brings the couple over the medical card income limit.

I am concerned, although some people might be within the guidelines because they might have receipts which they could include in their application for the card. However, some people might not have those receipts and within two months, they will find themselves outside the income limits for the medical card. Surely the Government should now increase the income limits as a matter of urgency. Am I correct in my analysis of the position or am I missing something? Is there any way around this?