Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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1781. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated yearly cost of increasing the living alone allowance from €9 to €15 per week; her views on the fact that persons living alone have higher costs than couples; her plans to increase the living alone allowance in budget 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37039/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The living alone increase is an additional payment of €9 per week made to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments, including State pensions, and who are living alone. It is also available to people who are less than 66 years of age, living alone and in receipt of disability allowance, invalidity pension, incapacity supplement or blind pension. The objective of the payment is to compensate for the additional individual costs of living alone when compared to a couple or family.

The cost of raising the living alone increase from €9 to €15 per week is estimated to be €62.8 million in 2018. It should be noted that this costing is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients for 2018.

The appropriate rates of welfare payments in 2018, including the weekly rate of the living alone increase, will be considered in the context of the Government’s discussions on the next Budget.

According to the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice (VPSJ), as set out in Minimum Essential Standard of Living 2017, the minimum income standard for a pensioner living alone and in receipt of a weekly social welfare payment is €216.38 per week.Currently, a state pension non-contributory recipient receives the equivalent of a weekly income support of c. €255.30 per week, which is in excess of this standard.

Similarly, the minimum income standard, according to the VPSJ, for a single working age adult living alone is €214.69 per week. Currently, a recipient of disability allowance receives the equivalent weekly income of c. €221.30 per week, which again is in excess of this standard.