Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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748. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of recipients of the living alone increase; if the rate of payment has been reviewed to reflect the rising costs of utilities, housing, and healthcare; and whether his Department will commit to an indexed approach to maintain real value for older recipients. [48362/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Primary weekly social welfare payments are intended to enable recipients to meet their basic day-to-day income needs. In addition to these primary payments, my Department also provides a range of other payments on a weekly, monthly, or less frequent basis. These payments are considered secondary in nature and cannot be made available to those who are not in receipt of a primary payment.

The Living Alone Increase (LAI) is one of those secondary payments. It is not a scheme or a stand-alone payment, but it is a supplement to a primary social protection payment of €22 per week made to people aged 66 years or over, who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments and who are living alone.

For those aged 66 or over, payments eligible for the LAI include State Pension (Contributory), State Pension (Non-Contributory), Bereaved Partner’s (Contributory) Pension, Bereaved Partner's Pension under the Occupational Injuries Benefit Scheme, Incapacity Supplement under the Occupational Injuries Benefit Scheme and Deserted Wife's Benefit. LAI is also paid to people aged under 66 who live alone and are in receipt of Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Incapacity Supplement or Blind Pension.

At the end of August, our most recently available statistics, there were 253,737 people in receipt of the LAI.

The rate of primary and secondary payments to pensioners, and their adequacy, are considered in the context of the annual budgetary process. In doing so, the Government considers evidence from a wide range of sources, including agencies such as the CSO, and also research submitted by advocacy groups such as the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, who measure the “Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL)”.

Budget 2020 increased the LAI rate from €9 per week to €14 per week. It was increased to €19 for 2021 and to €22 for 2022. In recent successive Budgets, the social welfare packages were the largest in the history of the State, and the last three Budgets contained significant cost of living packages, including a number of additional once-off payments to those in receipt of the LAI.

As part of the Budget process, my Department sets out a rate of State Pension (Contributory) payment calculated using the smoothed earnings benchmark approach as an input for consideration of the overall Budget discussions, on an annual basis.

The Government is focused on continuing to deliver on measures to address poverty and social exclusion. Any change to the rate payable for this payment will have to be considered in an overall budgetary context.