Social welfare to account for 33% of State spending

Social welfare investment will account for €1 in every €3 of Exchequer spending this year, Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan told the Dáil as he introduced social welfare reform legislation.

The Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Bill combines all non-contributory payments for people over 66 years of age, other than carer's allowance, into one standard and enhanced non-contributory pension scheme with "a greatly improved means test that will lift some 34,000 pensioners on to higher or full pensions".

Opposition deputies welcomed many of the measures, but complained they had only received a briefing on the day the Bill was introduced in the Dáil and just a day after it was published.

Mr Brennan also said an estimated 3,000 people would benefit from an earnings disregard of €100 a week for widows and widowers, deserted wives and prisoners' wives.

More than 540,000 families would benefit from the increased child benefit payment rates to €150 for the first two children and €185 for the third and each subsequent child.

The Bill also changes the names of social welfare schemes, including the "old age" pensions, which will be called the State pension - contributory and non-contributory. Unemployment benefit becomes jobseeker's benefit, while disability benefit will be known as illness benefit.

The pre-retirement allowance will be phased out over the next decade as part of the reforms. Mr Brennan said the scheme was originally introduced for long-term recipients of unemployment assistance who were 55 and over and who had effectively stopped seeking work.