Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the assistance which is available to persons who experience difficulties with funeral expenses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11947/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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There are a number of schemes within the social welfare system to assist families in dealing with death and funeral expenses.

A bereavement grant based on PRSI contributions is a payment designed to assist families in dealing with death and funeral expenses. It amounts to €635 and is paid by cheque to the husband, wife, next of kin or personal representative of the deceased or to the person responsible for the payment of the funeral bill.

The widowed parent's grant is designed to assist with the income support needs of widows and widowers with dependent children in the immediate aftermath of a bereavement. It is payable to widows and widowers with dependent children who qualify for a widow or widower's contributory pension or a one-parent family payment or a bereavement grant.

A qualified child for the purpose of the grant is a child under 18 years or a child between the ages of 18 and 22 years who is in full-time education. The rate of the widowed parent's grant increased to €2,700 from December 2003.

My Department also operates a scheme of payment for six weeks after death which is payable, in most cases, to the qualified adult of claimants of contributory and non-contributory social welfare payments. The payment is generally made in a lump sum by cheque when the bereaved person produces a death certificate and funeral bill or funeral notice.

In addition to the payments available directly from my Department, the supplementary welfare allowance, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for a single payment to be made to help meet essential, once-off exceptional expenditure, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her weekly income.

These payments, known as exceptional needs payments, may be made towards funeral expenses where it is established that there is an inability to meet the costs by the family concerned.

The Family Support Agency, which operates under the aegis of my Department, administers a scheme of grants to voluntary organisations to assist with the provision of specialist counselling and support services for bereaved people.

Overall, I believe these schemes and services represent a reasonably comprehensive and effective range of supports for the needs — financial and otherwise — of families in the aftermath of bereavement.