John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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603. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the details of the jobseeker's allowance, jobseeker's benefit, supplementary welfare allowance, farm assist, one parent family payment, carer's allowance and carer's benefit in tabular form; the increase to the weekly rates if they were to be increased in line with the Department of Finance's inflation forecast for 2019; the cost of this increase per scheme; the cost of further increasing each of the weekly payments to bring the rate increase to a total of €5; and the cost of the increase per scheme. [11663/18]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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604. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the details of the disability allowance, blind pension and invalidity pension in tabular form; the increase to the weekly rates if they were to be increased in line with the Department of Finance's inflation forecast for 2019; the cost of this increase per scheme; the cost of further increasing each of the weekly payments to bring the rate increase to a total of €6; and the cost of the total increase per scheme. [11664/18]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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605. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the details of the family income supplement (FIS) in tabular form; the increase to the weekly rates if they were to be increased in line with the Department of Finance's inflation forecast for 2019; the cost of this increase; the cost of further increasing FIS expenditure to bring the increase to a total of 5% and 10%; and the cost of the increase. [11665/18]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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606. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the details of the age related under 26 years of age jobseeker's and supplementary welfare allowance payment rates of €102.70 and €148.70, respectively in tabular from; the increase to the weekly rates if they were to be increased in line with the Department of Finance's inflation forecast for 2019; the cost of these increases; the cost of further increasing each of the weekly payments to bring the rate increase to a total of €10; and the cost of the increase per scheme. [11666/18]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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607. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the details of the State pension in tabular form; the increase to the weekly rates if they were to be increased in line with the Department of Finance's inflation forecast for 2019; the cost of this increase per payment; the cost of further increasing each of the weekly payments to bring the rate increase to a total of €4.50; and the cost of the increase per payment. [11667/18]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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617. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the cost of increasing all weekly social welfare payments, assuming family income supplement is included in line with inflation in each of the years 2019 to 2023 as per the most recent inflation rate forecasts by the Department of Finance in tabular form. [11727/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 603 to 607, inclusive, and 617 together.

The costings sought by the Deputy are detailed in the following series of tables.

The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices used in the tables below are sourced from the Department of Finance’s 2018 Budget Day book. This provides forecasts for inflation for the four years 2018 to 2021 inclusive, and these are the latest published forecasts. However, as there are no projections available for the years 2022 or 2023, costings are provided for the years 2019 to 2021 inclusive only.

All of the costings below are based on 2018 recipient numbers, and include the cost of proportionate increases in reduced rates and the qualified adult rates of payment, where applicable. It should be noted that the costings do not take into account changing trends (increases or decreases) in recipient numbers from 2019 onwards.

The rate increases in line with inflation are calculated based on the Budget 2018 rates that will be paid from the week commencing 26 March 2018.

Table 1: Increases (for certain schemes) linked to the forecast 2019 inflation rate of 1.4% and a €5 increase

Table 2: Increases (for certain schemes) linked to the forecast 2019 inflation rate of 1.4% and a €6 increase

Table 3: Cost of Percentage Increases for Working Family Payment (formerly Family Income Supplement – FIS)

There are no set weekly rates of payment for this scheme as payment is calculated based on 60% of the difference in the weekly net earnings of a recipient and the weekly threshold applicable to them. The costs detailed above are calculated using the estimated 2018 expenditure on the Working Family Payment as provided in the 2018 Revised Estimates.

Table 4: Increases for Jobseeker’s Allowance reduced rates of payment linked to the 2019 forecast inflation rate of 1.4% and a €10 increase

Table 5: Increases for pension schemes linked to the 2019 inflation rate of 1.4% and a €4.50 increase

Table 6: Cost of increasing all weekly social welfare payments in line with inflation, 2019-2021

All weeklySocial Welfare payments

The costs for all weekly social welfare payments includes increasing the qualified child increase, the Living Alone Increase and the over 80s allowance in line with projected inflation. It also includes increasing the rates for the employment programmes including Community Employment, Tús and the Rural Social Scheme but it does not include increasing the top-ups paid on these schemes. Furthermore, it includes increasing expenditure on the Working Family Payment (formerly Family Income Supplement) in line with projected inflation.