Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 140: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the action he has taken in the past year to help low income families. [4616/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Budget 2008 announced in December 2007, made provision for further improvements in social welfare schemes for low income families and children. It provided for an increase of €12, or 6.5%, per week in the personal rate payable to recipients of the various social welfare schemes for persons of working age. This brought the level of the lowest rate of social welfare payment to €197.80 per week, thereby ensuring that the value of the rate is maintained in line with the commitment in the Agreed Programme for Government and the national action plan for social inclusion. The weekly rates of Qualified Adult Payment for most working age schemes was increased by €8 per week, or 6.5%. The budget provides for an increase from May 2008 in the upper income threshold for One Parent Family Payment from €400 to €425 a week. Some €148 million, or €194 million when the Early Childcare Supplement is included, has been provided to improve the range of supports for children.

There will be increases in Child Benefit of €6 for the first two children and €8 for the third and subsequent children. There will be an additional €2 per week in the Qualified Child Increase, formerly called the Child Dependent Allowance, which is paid to all social welfare recipients with children. The thresholds for Family Income Supplement will increase by €10 per week for each child which will result in payments increasing by €6 a week per child. These improvements will benefit some 26,500 existing lower income families in employment and entitle a further 2,700 families to the payment. There will be improvements in the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance and an increase of €100 per child in the level of the Early Childcare Supplement which is paid to families with children under the age of six.

The impact of these measures is best illustrated by way of an example. In the case of a social welfare-dependent family with three children, one of them under six years of age and another over 12 years of age, the combined value of child support payments to that family will increase by €718 in a full year, bringing their total child income support to over €12,000 next year. This equates to an income support payment of €77 per child per week and represents an increase of over 6% in the value of their current payments. In addition, I increased the Widowed Parent Grant by €2,000 to €6,000. This is an important measure for the families concerned, giving them a financial boost at a time of bereavement and great personal loss, which frequently is compounded by economic uncertainty and concerns about the future. I was also pleased to have been able to assist the Family Support Agency to improve the range of services they support including in the area of bereavement and family counselling. Finally, additional funding is being provided for the School Meals Programme, which was greatly expanded last year to the benefit of some 175,000 pupils in 1,800 schools.

Total expenditure this year will rise to €32 million and the priority is to expand the scheme to a further tranche of schools covered by the Department of Education's "Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools" action plan. The improvements announced in Budget 2008 fully protect and enhance the position of all social welfare recipients, including low income families with children.

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 141: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on making provisions available to widows and widowers who have experienced a decrease in social welfare payments since the death of their spouses but not in their outgoings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5045/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The social welfare system includes a number of provisions to provide additional support to widows and widowers in the immediate aftermath of a bereavement. The scheme of six weeks payment after death ensures that, if a person in receipt of a social welfare payment dies, the social welfare paid to the surviving spouse or partner is maintained at the same level for six weeks after the death of the person. The widowed parent grant, introduced in 2000, also provides additional assistance at this time to those with children and is paid in addition to the usual after-death payments such as the bereavement grant, which is currently €850. The widowed parent grant was increased by €2,000 to €6,000 in the last Budget in recognition of the particular difficulties faced by widows and widowers with children on the death of a spouse. Once the transitional payments already outlined are paid, surviving spouses are eligible for a range of social welfare supports. The contributory widow or widower pension is available to those who satisfy the necessary PRSI contribution conditions, either on their own record or that of the deceased spouse. Those qualifying for this benefit are not subject to a means test.

People without the necessary PRSI contributions can get the one-parent family payment if they have qualifying children. Widows or widowers without dependant children who do not qualify for the contributory payment may, if they are under 66 years of age, qualify for the widow or widower non-contributory pension, or the State non-contributory pension if they are over 66 years of age. The State non-contributory pension features a basic means disregard of €30 per week with a specific additional earnings disregard of €200 per week if the pensioner is in employment. The earnings disregard also applies to widows or widowers under the age of 66 who are in receipt of the widow or widower non-contributory pension. The household benefits package, which comprises the electricity and gas allowance, telephone allowance and television licence schemes, is generally available to people living permanently in the State, aged 66 or over, who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who fulfil a means test. The schemes are available on a universal basis to those aged 70 years and over. Widows and widowers aged from 60 to 65 whose late spouses had been in receipt of the household benefit package or free travel retain that entitlement. This measure is in place to ensure that households who have this entitlement do not lose it on the death of a spouse.

Widowed persons are also entitled to the fuel allowance, back to school clothing and footwear allowance and other secondary benefits on the same basis as other social welfare recipients. Under the terms of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, an exceptional needs payment may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which an applicant is unable to meet out of his or her own resources. Eligible people are normally in receipt of a social welfare payment, including the widow or widower pension, or a HSE payment. I will continue to keep the adequacy of supports available to widowed people under review.