John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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575. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of introducing a bereavement grant of €500, €700 and €1,000. [14036/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In recent Budgets my Department has protected primary social welfare rates. Abolishing the bereavement grant provided a significant annual saving. This allowed my Department to protect other social welfare payments such as the State pension.

There are a range of supports available for people following bereavement which provide more significant support than the grant. These include a weekly-paid widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner’s (contributory and non-contributory) pensions, which are based on contributions or a means test, and a once-off widowed or surviving civil partner grant of €6,000 where there is a dependent child. A number of social welfare payments, including State pension, continue in payment for six weeks following a death. In Budget 2016, the Government increased the payment after death period to 12 weeks for carer’s allowance. Guardian payments are available where someone cares for an orphaned child. A special funeral grant of €850 is paid where a person dies because of an accident at work or occupational disease.

The supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme provides assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependants. Under the SWA scheme, the Department of Social Protection may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet from their weekly income, which may include help with funeral and burial expenses. The Government has provided €31.5 million for exceptional and urgent needs payments in 2017.

The number of bereavement grant claims in 2013 was 23,716, and this represented a percentage increase on 2012 figure of approximately 4%. Based on a similar yearly increase each year since 2013, it is estimated that the number of bereavement grant claims that might arise in 2018, were the scheme to be reintroduced, would be in the region of 28,858, and this number would likely increase in future years. The following table sets out the estimated cost of introducing a bereavement grant at a rate of €500, €700 and €1000.

Estimate cost of introducing a Bereavement Grant in 2018

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.