Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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146. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she plans to increase supports available to homeless families and children given the rise in homelessness; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33169/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Government Strategy “Housing for All” includes a number of commitments to tackle homelessness and it is led by my colleague the Minister for Housing Local Government and Heritage.

Budget 2023 provided a social welfare package worth almost €2.2 billion which included a range of measures to support families with children. In addition to the lump sum payments and double payments paid last year, personal rates of payment on working age schemes increased by €12 per week to €220 from January. In addition, the weekly rate of payment for a Qualified Child has been increased to €42 per week for a child under 12 and €50 per week for a child over 12.

Building on these Budget measures, in February, the Government announced details of a cost-of-living measures package worth €1.2 billion, which included a €410 million Social Welfare package. These measures included a once-off lump sum payment of €200 in April, paid to people on the Working Family Payment, lone parents, low-income families, carers, those on disability payments, and pensioners among others. In June, recipients of Child Benefit received a €100 lump sum for every child for whom Child Benefit is paid. The payment was made to 638,000 recipients in respect of 1,203,000 children. The estimated cost of this measure is€122 million in 2023.

Furthermore, the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance payment has been increased by €100 for the 2023 scheme year, to assist families with the increased cost of returning to school. The rates of payment for the 2023 scheme year are €260 for children aged between 4 and 11 years and €385 for children aged 12 and over. This payment will provide additional support to approximately 153,000 families, including those availing of the Temporary Protection Directive. The estimated cost of this measure is €27.3 million.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides, where necessary, Additional Needs Payments to help meet essential expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income. Government has provided €66 million for the Additional Needs Payment schemes and €3.27 million for reoccurring supplements in 2023. This is a demand-led scheme with no budget cap.

In addition, since my appointment as Minister for Social Protection, I have introduced significant expansion to the school meals scheme, including hot school meals, which also support parents and children with a daily school meal.

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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147. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will consider expanding the criteria of the household benefits package so that all cancer patients become eligible upon diagnosis, until their treatment is finished; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33039/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Household Benefits Package (HHB) comprises the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. My Department will spend approximately €285 million this year on HHB for over 511,000 customers.

People over the age of 70 receive the HHB package, with one package provided per household. The package is also available to people living in the State aged 66-69 years who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments or who satisfy a means test. The package is available to some people under the age of 66 who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments.

It is important to note that, in general, access to the HHB Package for those aged under 66 is a secondary benefit linked to a person being in receipt of certain primary Social Protection payments such as Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Carer’s Allowance, Blind Pension and Partial Capacity Benefit. As many illnesses or physical conditions have an impact ranging from mild to severe, entitlement to these social welfare schemes is not provided on the basis of a diagnosis but on the basis of the impact of that diagnosis on the individual concerned and in the case of Disability and Carer's allowance to an assessment of their means. In this way, resources can be targeted to people in most need.

Extending the eligibility of the HHB package to the cohort of people the Deputy has suggested would change the nature of the scheme and would require additional funding and administrative staff and would have to be considered in the overall budgetary context.

Finally, the Department of Social Protection provides Additional Needs Payments as part of the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme for people who have an urgent need, which they cannot meet from their own resources. These payments are available through our Community Welfare Officers and include help towards costs that cannot be met from the person's own resources and are deemed to be necessary.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.