Written answers

Thursday, 11 June 2015

Department of Social Protection

State Pensions Payments

Photo of Terence FlanaganTerence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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48. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will address a matter (details supplied) regarding cuts to payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22737/15]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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State Pensions account for the single largest block of welfare expenditure, and while expenditure on pensions is increasing because of demographic pressures, this is being successfully managed within the overall welfare budget, which continues to fall. This year, the Department of Social Protection will spend an estimated €6.675 billion on pensions – 34.4% of all welfare expenditure and an increase of €168 million over 2014.

The overall concern of the Government in recent budgets has been to protect the primary weekly social welfare rates where possible. Maintaining the rate of the State pension and other core payments is critical in protecting people from poverty. The Government has no plans to change this policy. In fact, the Government increased payments for certain pensioners by increasing the rate of the Living Alone Allowance in Budget 2015 to €9.00.

This increases the maximum personal rate of the State non-contributory pension for a qualified person living alone to €228 per week, and the maximum rate for the contributory pension to €239.30, when both the basic pension and the allowance are taken into account.

The most recent change in the core rate of State pensions was in Budget 2009, when the State pension contributory was increased by 3.1% to €230.30, and the non-contributory pension by 3.3% to €219.00. Both of these are the maximum personal rates, and there are also payments for dependant adults which attracted similar increases at that time.

Core pension rates have not been reduced in the life of this Government, despite significant pressures on Exchequer spending. The same period has seen considerable deflation which has protected core pension rates in real terms from erosion by inflation. This has had the effect of protecting older people from poverty. CSO figures show that those over 65 are significantly less likely to be at risk of poverty or deprivation than those aged under 65.

The recovery has also allowed us some leeway to increase spending in targeted areas, which is why I was able to restore a partial Christmas Bonus benefitting over 575,000 pensioners and 1.23 million welfare recipients in total.

Any decision to increase pension rates would have budgetary consequences and would have to be considered in the context of budget negotiations.

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