Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 288: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the extent to which he will improve the qualification guidelines for rent allowance with particular reference to the sensitivities of some cases; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43613/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The purpose of the scheme is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source.

In Budget 2007 I introduced a combination of measures which when taken together offer a significant reform of the manner in which rent and mortgage interest supplement entitlement is decided.

From April 2007, the means test for Rent and Mortgage Interest Supplement is being reformed so that recipients retain at least half of any extra income they get from part-time employment, education or training allowances, subject to a limit of €200 in extra income. This means that they may be better off by up to €100 per week as a result of availing of such opportunities.

In addition, from April 2007, any person who is on a local authority waiting list for accommodation under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (those with a long-term housing need), may now return to full-time employment and be considered for a rent supplement payment under the standard means test as outlined above. This new system replaces the existing special retention arrangements.

From January 2007, any additional amount of State pension which is in excess of the supplementary welfare allowance rate will be disregarded when calculating rent or mortgage interest supplement entitlements.

These new measures do not in any way restrict the flexibility available to the Health Service Executive to deal with exceptional cases. In this regard the Executive may provide assistance in the form of a supplement in any case, where, in its opinion, the circumstances of the particular case so warrant.

Overall, I believe that Budget 2007 provides for significant improvements to the rent supplement scheme both in terms of simplifying the current assessment process and in offering clear incentives to those returning to work.

The Community Welfare Service provides a responsive and flexible approach to meeting individuals' needs under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Within the service customers are dealt with in a setting that facilitates privacy, sensitivity and confidentiality and supports the access to information. I am confident that this ethos would be followed in all cases by Community Welfare Officers and Superintendent Community Officers in their dealings with applicants for rent supplement

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 289: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will further improve and ease the qualification guidelines for family income supplement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43614/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Family income supplement is designed to provide support for people on low earnings with child dependants and provide the incentive for them to remain in, or take up, employment. Recent improvements to family income supplement include the change of assessment from a gross income basis to net income, the increase to €20 per week in the minimum payment and, in Budget 2007, the continued re-focusing of income thresholds to include additional gains for larger families.

The increased family income supplement weekly thresholds announced in Budget 2007 will benefit families by various amounts, from €9 (for a one child family) to €111 (for a family with eight or more children). This will increase the average payment, per child, to €50 a week. These increases will make an estimated 5,600 additional families eligible for a full FIS payment. The cost of this measure is estimated at €32 million in 2007 and in a full year.

Research has shown that poverty is more likely to be concentrated in larger families. The new FIS thresholds both significantly increase all payments and concentrate additional resources on larger families. This continues the re-focusing of thresholds which started in Budget 2006, to target resources at households in poverty.

In the context of an overall review of targeted child income support payments, the National Economic and Social Council was asked to examine the feasibility of merging the family income supplement with child dependant allowance and possibly including other child supports such as the back to school clothing and footwear allowance, resulting in a single second tier child income support. Such a payment would be aimed specifically at targeting child poverty by channelling resources to low-income families without creating significant disincentives to employment. This commitment to examining such a change was subsequently embodied in the partnership agreement 'Toward 2016' which committed to completing consideration of the issue within one year.

I have long held the view that implementing such a second tier of payment for children in low income and welfare families is the most effective method of significantly reducing remaining child poverty. Overall, Child Benefit remains the main universal support for families with children.

I now intend introducing in this Bill, a new single high rate Qualified Child Allowance (formerly Child Dependant Allowance) targeted specifically at families on welfare where, naturally, children are most at risk of poverty. The current three Qualified Child Allowance rates will be combined into a single rate of €22 per week to be paid for over 340,000 children of welfare families. For those on the current lower rates of €16.80 and €19.30 per child per week, this represents a substantial improvement, particularly when taken with Child Benefit and other increases.

I view this improved and targeted allowance as representing a substantial move in the direction of a second tier payment and that is why in this Budget I have deliberately taken the decision to focus increased child supports in this area. I intend to build on the advances made on a second tier payment system in Budget 2007 when I receive the NESC report.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 292: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the extent to which carers can or will receive credited contributions for the time they have spent caring; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43618/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Credited contributions, or 'credits' as they are termed, are intended to protect the entitlements, particularly the pension rights, of employees and other persons participating in the social insurance system when they are ill or unemployed. A person who is providing full time care and attention to a person as a carer is awarded credits on the same basis as if they were out of the workforce due to illness or unemployment. Under the current statutory provisions governing the award of credited contributions, recipients of the carer's allowance may be awarded credits if they switched to that payment from another credit-bearing payment such as jobseeker's allowance. From April 1999, formal provision was made for the award of credits to claimants of carer's allowance who have left insurable employment to engage in caring duties.

Recipients of carer's allowance, who are not entitled to credits, may be eligible for home-makers disregards which preserve the carer's entitlement for contributory pension purposes. The home-maker scheme provides that contribution years spent working in the home while caring on a full-time basis for a child up to 12 years of age or an incapacitated person will be disregarded in calculating a person's yearly average number of contributions for old age contributory pension purposes. The provisions apply from the contribution year commencing on 6 April 1994 and up to 20 contribution years may be disregarded. The award of credits is subject to certain conditions. For example, when a person has no paid or credited contributions for a period of two years, they cannot be awarded further credits until 26 contributions are paid. In recognition of their caring role, this rule will be waived where claimants of carer's allowance were eligible for home-makers disregards immediately prior to claiming carer's allowance. This, in effect, means that credits will be awarded where a person who has a gap of two years in their paid or credited contributions was eligible for home-makers disregards before claiming carer's allowance. This will protect the position of people who did not give up work to become carers but may have qualified for home-makers disregards due to child-minding duties and who subsequently became carers after a two year period had expired. All aspects of the carer's allowance scheme and supports for carers are kept under review and ways of increasing and expanding services for carers will continue to be examined.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 293: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will increase or expand the free fuel allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43619/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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In Budget 2007, I have provided for a number of improvements in the fuel allowance scheme. These comprise an increase in the weekly rate of fuel allowance of €4 from €14 to €18 (€21.90 in designated smokeless areas) — a doubling in two years — and an increase in the income threshold for eligibility to fuel allowance by €49 from €51 to €100 above the state pension (contributory) rate. These changes add to a range of improvements made to the scheme in recent years including an easing of the means test, extending the duration of payment from 26 to 29 weeks and an increase of €5 in the rate of payment in the 2006 Budget. Some 274,000 people will benefit in 2006 at an estimated annual cost €125.1m. As a consequence of the increase in rate announced in the recent Budget, annual expenditure on the scheme in 2007 will increase by €31.8m to €156.9m.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 294: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the most common reason for delays in processing social welfare claims through jurisdictions with which Ireland has a bilateral arrangement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43620/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland currently has bilateral social security agreements with seven countries: Austria, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the USA and Switzerland. Ireland also entered into a bilateral understanding with Quebec on 1 October 1994. The main purpose of these agreements is to protect the social security pension rights of workers who have worked both in Ireland and the other country to which the agreements apply. Ireland also processes claims under EU legislation from workers in the EU states. The bilateral arrangements with Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have limited application as EU Regulations apply in most cases.

Social welfare entitlements that fall to be examined under EU or Bilateral agreements take a longer time to process than domestic claims due to the need to obtain and exchange information with the other countries involved. Reviews of the implementation of EU and Bilateral arrangements are carried out from time to time by officials of the Department and institutions in the other countries are requested to expedite the transfer of information as quickly as possible. The logistics involved in transferring information between institutions in different countries inevitably leads to delays outside the control of my Department. There is currently a build-up in this Department of claims for processing under EU and Bilateral arrangements arising from the substantial increase in claims from EU nationals in recent years. In the majority of cases the persons involved are already in receipt of a pension from another Member State or country with which the Department has a bilateral agreement. My Department is endeavouring to process these claims as quickly as possible through the use of overtime and the deployment of additional staff from other areas. In addition, the use of temporary staff to assist in the processing of claims is being considered. Delays in processing claim applications do not result in any losses to pensioners and those who qualify for payment have their claims backdated fully in accordance with the normal provisions for backdating of claims.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 295: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will improve the eligibility guidelines for qualification of free schemes with particular reference to widows with dependent children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43621/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The household benefits package, which comprises the electricity/gas allowance, telephone allowance and television licence schemes, is generally available to people living permanently in the State, aged 66 years or over, who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The package is also available to carers and people with disabilities under the age of 66 who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments. Widows and widowers aged 60 to 65 whose late spouses had been in receipt of the household benefits package retain that entitlement to ensure that households do not suffer a loss of entitlements following the death of a spouse.

People aged over 70 years of age can qualify for the household benefits package regardless of their income or household composition. Those aged under 70 must live alone or only with certain excepted people in order to qualify. Excepted people for the purposes of the scheme include qualified adults, dependent children under age 18 or under age 22 if in full time education, people who are so incapacitated as to require constant care and attention for at least 12 months; people who would qualify for the allowance in their own right, people who are providing constant care and attention to any member of the household who is so incapacitated as to require constant care and attention for at least 12 months. A range of proposals, have been made to extend the coverage of the household benefits package of free schemes. These proposals are kept under review in the context of the objectives of the scheme and budgetary resources.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 296: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he proposes to ease the qualification guidelines for the back to education allowance with particular reference to the required period of unemployment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43622/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The back to education allowance is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force. The qualifying period for access to the second level option of the scheme is six months. As the Deputy is aware, I reduced the qualifying period for access to the third level option of the scheme to 12 months in the 2005 Budget. I also increased the annual cost of education allowance, paid to people on BTEA, from €254 to €400. These changes came into effect from 1 September 2005. Following an undertaking to the Dáil and the Social Affairs Committee, I further reduced the qualifying period for access to the third level option to 9 months. This condition applies to persons who are participating in the National Employment Action Plan (NEAP) process and where a FÁS Employment Services Officer recommends pursuance of a third level course of study as essential to the enhancement of the individual's employment prospects. This new condition also came into effect from 1 September 2005. In the 2006 Budget, I announced that time spent in receipt of supplementary welfare allowance from the Health Services Executive or the direct provision system operated by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform can count towards the qualifying period for back to education allowance in circumstances where the person establishes an entitlement to a relevant social welfare payment prior to commencing an approved course of study. This provision came into effect from September 2006. In Budget 2007 I extended the entitlement to participate in the back to education scheme to persons losing their employment with an entitlement to statutory redundancy, provided they have an underlying entitlement to a relevant social welfare payment. There will be no need to satisfy the qualifying period normally required. This enhancement to the scheme recognises their need to retrain at the earliest possible time, in order to re-access the changing labour market. This will be effective from September 2007. I will continue to monitor the scheme but I believe that, overall, the current arrangements ensure that the scheme continues to provide valuable assistance to people who have been out of the workforce for some time and enhances the opportunities of obtaining employment.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 297: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be approved and awarded the respite care grant for 2006. [43665/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The person to whom the Deputy refers submitted an application for Respite Care Grant which was received in the Department on 4 October 2006. A decision to award the Respite Care Grant for 2006 was made by a Deciding Officer on 27 October 2006. The Respite Care Grant was not awarded in respect of 2005, on the grounds that the person concerned was not so incapacitated as to require full-time care and attention at that time. The application submitted made it clear that care recipient's medical condition had deteriorated between 2005 and 2006. An error was made in communicating the decision. The person concerned was told that he had been awarded the Respite Care Grant for 2005 and accordingly a cheque for €1,000, the amount of the grant for 2005, was issued to him. This mistake has now been rectified and the balance of the payment, €200, is being issued to him along with an appeal form in respect of the 2005 grant. The miscommunication is regretted.