Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 142: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the payments or allowances that can be made to claimants here based on receipt of a qualifying payment from the Department or from a country covered by EU regulations or a country with which Ireland has a bilateral social security agreement; those payments that are not covered by these agreements on a country basis; if she will explain the reason fuel allowance may be paid but living alone allowance is not paid to claimants under the above regulations; if she will facilitate the payment of these allowances that are not currently covered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13848/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department operates a range of schemes which can, subject to conditions, be paid to individuals as an extra allowance, or as a separate payment, in addition to their standard social welfare payment. The payments include living alone increase, allowances under the supplementary welfare allowance schemes, household benefits, fuel allowance, respite care grant and island allowance. In the time available it is not possible to compile details of all the schemes which are available to the different categories of claimant resident here and receiving social welfare payments from Ireland or from other countries.

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 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.

I have no plans to change these arrangements. I would point out that 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.