John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 405: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the situation with regard to policy and commitment to women over 65 years who have no payment or recognition for their years of work in the home; and if he will report on the system of credit stamps currently given to women taking time off from work to rear families; when this system was introduced; the system which can be introduced for women who provided such service prior to that; the number of spouses in receipt of the dependent adult allowance who receive the contributory old age pension; and the cost to give these spouses the full non-contributory pension. [24176/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The homemaker's scheme was introduced in 1994 to protect the pension entitlements of those who take time out of the paid workforce for caring duties. The scheme allows up to 20 years to be disregarded when a person's insurance record is being averaged to assess entitlement for contributory pension purposes. The scheme will not of itself qualify a person for a pension as the standard qualifying conditions relating to the type and number of contributions paid or credited must also be satisfied.

The scheme was looked at in the context of a phase one review of qualifying conditions for old age contributory and retirement pensions. That review suggested a number of developments for the scheme, including backdating to an earlier date and replacing the disregard system with actual pension credits. The conclusions of that report are being examined in more detail but the suggestion with regard to backdating does give rise to significant costs as well as complex issues vis-À-vis other groups excluded from social insurance cover at different times.

The Government is committed to increasing the payment for qualified adults — age 66 years or over — to the same level as the personal rate of the old age non-contributory pension and a number of special increases have been given over several budgets in pursuit of this target. In addition, since October 2002, new pension claimants can opt to have the part of the payment in respect of their spouse or partner paid direct to that person.

At the end of 2004, there were 33,823 people aged 65 and over in receipt of a qualified adult allowance on either an old age contributory or retirement pension. The estimated cost of increasing the qualified adult allowance to the full rate of the non-contributory pension is €70 million.

The old age non-contributory pension is a social assistance scheme designed to provide financial support for all older people, whatever their circumstances, who do not qualify for one of the contributory pension schemes. In common with other social assistance schemes, it features a means test which is intended to ensure that available resources are targeted at those who are most in need. In this regard, budget 2005 provides for the disregard of the first €20,000 of savings or other assessable assets — such as shares or bonds — when means are being assessed. The operation of the means test is kept under review and changes are made as required.