Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1036. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost in 2024 if the living alone allowance was increased by €5 per week. [38557/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Living Alone Increase (LAI) is an extra payment for recipients of certain social welfare payments who live alone. It is an increase of €22 per week available to persons aged 66 or older who live alone and are in receipt of the State Pension, Widow(er) or Surviving Civil Partner's Pension, Incapacity Supplement or Deserted Wife's Benefit. It is also available to those aged under 66 who live alone and are in receipt of Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Incapacity Supplement, or Blind Pension.

There are currently 235,946 recipients of the LAI across all schemes. Increasing the rate of payment by €5 per week would result in an estimated additional cost of €61.4m in the first year.

Any proposed change to the rate of payment would have to be considered taking account of overall Government policy and in a budgetary context.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.