Extra €1bn to be spent on social allowances

Social welfareThe Government is to provide more than €1 billion in additional spending on social welfare payments, pensions and allowances in the year ahead.

Child benefit will rise by €10 a month for each of the first two children and by €12 for each subsequent child.The old-age pension will rise by €12 a week with new rates of between €166 and €179. Unemployment benefit and assistance as well as other "lower rate" payments such as disability allowance and benefit, one-parent family payment, widow's and widower's payment and farm assistance will increase by €14 a week.

The respite care grant is to be increased by €165 to €1,000 and eligibility extended to include up to 10,000 additional carers.

Family Income Supplement payments will increase by €39 a week while maternity benefit will rise from 70 per cent to 75 per cent of reckonable earnings.

As widely forecast, the Government has reversed or modified a number of the so-called "savage 16" social welfare cutbacks introduced last year.

The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mr Brennan, said the increase in social spending of more than €1 billion represented "a tangible statement that we mean business in this area". He said the increase of €874 million on social welfare spending (about €100 million more was announced in the Book of Estimates a fortnight ago) was significantly higher than its tax reform package.

The Minister maintained that the Government was on target to meet its commitment to deliver by 2007 a basic State pension of at least €200 and achieve a rate of at least €150 a week for the lowest rates of social welfare.

Mr Brennan said the rises in child benefit - which will stand at €141.60 a month for the first two children and €177.30 for each of the third and subsequent children - represented a fourfold increase in child benefit since 1997.

He is to axe the requirement for persons to be renting for six months before being entitled to rent supplement.

The Budget measures were broadly welcomed by the St Vincent de Paul Society but were criticised by the Opposition and by groups representing the elderly and campaigning for children.

Prof John Monaghan of the Society of St Vincent de Paul said the Minister was to be congratulated for reversing the worst effects of the "savage 16 cuts" and for increasing the old-age pension and basic social welfare rates. However the society was disappointed there had been no increase in child dependants allowance and that increases in child benefit and family income supplement were lower than expected.

Fine Gael's spokesman on social and family affairs, Mr David Stanton said there had been no change in over one-third of the "savage 16" and that the remainder had merely "been tinkered with".

The Children's Rights Alliance criticised the failure to increase child benefit to €150. It said that the Budget was "a broken promise to children, particularly those living in poverty".

The National Network of Lone Parents' Groups said the Budget was appalling for children living in poverty.

Age Action Ireland said that it was disappointed at the 7 per cent increase in pensions.