Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 403: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if there are plans to pay the living alone allowance to returned emigrants who are not in receipt of other payments from his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17025/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The living alone allowance, or living alone increase as it is now known, is an additional payment of €7.70 per week made to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments and who are living alone. It is also available to people under 66 years of age who are living alone and who receive payments under one of a number of invalidity type schemes. The increase is intended as a contribution towards the additional costs people face when they live alone.

The increase is not a payment in its own right but one that is paid as a supplement to an Irish social welfare payment. As such, it cannot be paid to people without a social welfare entitlement or to those whose pension payments are made exclusively under the social security regimes of other countries.

In relation to the latter, the needs of older people are often provided for in different ways by other countries. While the Irish system provides a basic pension, supplemented by allowances, increases and other benefits, the approach adopted by other countries can be very different involving, for instance, a pension based on pre-retirement earnings. It is of course open to recipients of pensions from other countries to apply for the state pension (non-contributory). In order to qualify for the state pension (non-contributory) a person must satisfy a means test. The pension, including, where appropriate, a living alone increase, can be paid in addition to other pension income. Changes in the income disregard for non-contributory pensions announced over the last two Budgets will help more people to qualify for a pension and improve the income of existing pensioners on reduced payments. At present some 11,000 British Retirement Pensioners are also receiving a state pension (non-contributory).