Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 293: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on increasing the living alone allowance in view of the fact that this allowance has been unchanged for the past seven years and in view of the higher costs of basic food provisions and so on. [24169/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The living alone allowance 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 who are 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 policy in relation to support for pensioners has been, for many years, to give priority to increasing the personal rates of pension rather than supplements like the living alone increase. The objective is to use resources to improve the position of all pensioners to the fullest extent possible rather than focusing on particular groups. This approach was continued in Budget 2007 with increases of up to €16 and €18 per week granted on personal rates.