Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 250: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on whether it is acceptable that the living alone allowance has not increased since 1997; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35801/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The living alone increase 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 receiving 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 2008 with increases of up to €12 and €14 per week granted on personal rates.

The results of this policy can be seen in the recently released results from the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) which showed that the position of older people improved significantly from 2005 to 2006, with the 'at risk of poverty' rate falling from 20.1% to 13.6%. Furthermore the number of people aged 65 and over 'at risk of poverty' was significantly lower than the figure of 17% for the general population.