Social Welfare Bill which provides for Budget 2022 Measures is published - Minister Humphreys

The Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys, TD, has announced the publication of the Social Welfare Bill, which will enact Budget 2022 measures.

The Social Welfare Budget package, worth €558 million in 2022, provides for across-the-board increases to weekly payments to pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, lone parents and working age people with additional increases for qualified adults and dependent children. The full year cost of implementing these measures comes to over €600 million.

Among the Budget measures included in the Bill are:

• €5 increase in the maximum rate of all core weekly payments, e.g., pensioners, widows(ers), lone parents, jobseekers, carers, people with disabilities, and people on employment programmes (e.g. Community Employment, Tús and the Rural Social Scheme), with proportionate increases for qualified adults (formerly known as adult dependants);
• €3 increase in the Living Alone Allowance from €19 to €22 per week to people with disabilities and people aged 66 and over who are living alone – over 230,000 pensioners, widows/widowers and people with disabilities to benefit;
• €3 increase for qualified child dependants aged 12 and over;
• €2 increase for qualified child dependants under age 12;
• Parent’s Benefit – increase from five to seven weeks for parents of children aged under two;
• A new grant of up to €500 to assist with cost of wigs/hairpieces for people receiving treatment for illness through the Treatment Benefit Scheme;
• Capital/Savings disregard in Carer’s Allowance increases from €20,000 to €50,000;
• Working Family Payment - thresholds increase by €10 per week for all family sizes;
• Farm Assist, Jobseeker’s Allowance, and State Non-Contributory Pension – some income from additional agri-environmental schemes to be disregarded;

Minister Heather Humphreys commented:

Minister Humphreys said that the Bill also provides for a series of measures, with a particular focus on carers, lone parents, low-income families and people with disabilities.

Among the measures included are significant changes to the Carer’s Allowance means assessments – this is the first time there have been changes to this means assessment in almost 14 years. These changes will mean that more carers will now qualify for Carer’s Allowance, while those in receipt of a reduced rate will also see increases in their payments.

The Bill will provide for the capital/savings disregard for the Carer’s Allowance means assessment to increase from €20,000 to €50,000, aligning it with the equivalent disregard for Disability Allowance. Essentially, this means more individuals will qualify for Carer’s Allowance.

People receiving Disability Allowance will also see an improvement in the general means disregard as it will increase from €2.50 to €7.60 per week. This will see approximately 18,000 recipients gaining up to €5 per week.

The legislation also provides for the extension of the Covid Credit Guarantee Scheme until the end of June 2022. This scheme, which was approved by Government in 2020 as one of the main supports for Covid-impacted businesses, had been due to end on 31 December 2021.

The Social Welfare Bill 2021 is available here.

ENDS

Note for Editors:

The decision on Budget day to pay a 100% Christmas bonus valued at over €300m to all qualifying welfare recipients does not require legislative provision in this Bill but is being dealt with by way of a supplementary estimate that the Minister will bring before the Oireachtas shortly.