Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 321 and 322 together.

The blind person’s pension (BPP) is a means-tested payment for blind people and certain people with low vision operated by my Department. BPP is a unique scheme in that it is the only social welfare payment which has been introduced to cater for a specific disability. The estimated level of expenditure in 2016 is €14 million.

There are currently some 1,280 recipients on the scheme. Data in respect of the number of recipients over the period 2000 to 2013 are set out in the table and show that the number of individuals in receipt of the BPP has been steadily declining. Data in respect of 2014 and 2015 are not available due to technical reasons.

It is the practice of the Department to encourage those applying for BPP to ascertain first of all whether they would be better off availing of disability allowance (DA) rather than BPP as the structure of the DA scheme is generally more beneficial to claimants. In particular the assessment of capital is treated differently in the two schemes: under the means test for DA, the first €50,000 of capital is disregarded while for BPP only the first €20,000 of capital is disregarded.

As to secondary benefits, recipients of both DA and BPP carry an entitlement to a free travel pass and they may be entitled to additional benefits such as the fuel allowance, household benefits package, medical card and supplementary welfare allowance, depending on whether they satisfy the eligibility criteria for these schemes. Both BPP and DA recipients who live alone are eligible for the living alone allowance.

While there have been a number of proposals over the years to phase out the BPP and merge it with DA, most recently in a value for money review of the DA scheme published in 2010, there are currently no plans to end the BPP scheme and have it replaced by DA.

I trust that this clarifies the matter.