Social Protection Minister Joan Burton today said that the focus of the Social Welfare Budget 2013 is to maintain the weekly social welfare rates of payment. The rates for all core weekly payments will not change. Expenditure on social welfare payments and services will reach €20.8 billion this year and expenditure next year is expected to be €20.26 billion.
Minister Burton said:
This is a very challenging Budget, in particular following the huge fiscal adjustments that have taken place in this country since 2008. My objective in making the expenditure reductions we are announcing today is to ensure that those in most need of the support of the Department of Social Protection are protected the most.
Minister Burton commented that it is vital to support jobseekers and lone parents in becoming job ready and she is providing an extra 10,000 work activation places for social welfare customers next year and over 6,000 new after-school childcare places.
She said:
I am pleased to have secured €30 million in new spending on employment programmes and childcare places. This investment is consistent with this government’s priority of getting people back to work or getting them back to education or training so they will improve their chances of getting a job in the future. I hope that this programme will be progressive first step on the road to building a social protection system that will ultimately provide our citizens with better services.
The employment programme measures, which will cost €11 million are:
increasing the number of JobBridge Internships by an additional 2,500 places at a cost of €2 million;
providing an additional 2,500 Tús places, which will cost €4.6 million;
the Community Employment Programme is to get 2,000 extra places at a cost of €2.96 million.
In addition to these, €1.44 million will be made available for a new Local Authority Social Employment Scheme with 3,000 places.
Full details of these places will be available in early 2013.
Some of the main Social Welfare elements in Budget 2013 include:
Children and Families
Minister Burton has secured €18.5 million for childcare and child welfare provisions in 2013. |
These comprise:
€14 million per annum will be allocated to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to fund a joint initiative that will provide over 6,000 afterschool childcare places for children in primary school and will be targeted at low-income families where the parents are availing of an employment opportunity.
An additional €2 million is being allocated to school meals programme to provide regular, nutritious food to disadvantaged children.
€2.5 million in funding will be allocated to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs for its Area Based Child Poverty Initiative.
The rate of Child Benefit will be reduced by €10 from €140 per month to €130 per month for each of the first, second and third child with effect from January 2013. The rate for the fourth and each subsequent child will be €140 per month from January 2013 as announced in Budget 2012. From January 2014, the rate for the fourth and each subsequent child will reduce to €130 per month.
The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance will be reduced by €50 from €150 to €100 for children aged between 4 years and 11 years. It will be reduced by €50 from €250 to €200 for children aged 12 years to 17 years or aged 18 years to 22 years if in full-time education.
Older People
Older people will continue to get their State Pension at current levels. There are no changes to the Fuel Allowance, Free travel, Free Television Licence, Over 80 Allowance, Islander Allowance and the Living Alone Allowance. Their values are being maintained.
The value of the Telephone Allowance will be reduced. The new monthly rate of €9.50 will show as a credit on the customer’s bill or will be paid as a cash allowance.
The Electricity/Gas Allowance will be set at a single rate based on the average market rate across all suppliers currently available (for an unchanged 150 units per month). The new rate of €35 per month will show as a cash credit for those who receive a bill or be paid as a cash allowance.
Carers
Carers will remain one of the few areas where the Department continues to make double payments in recognition of the valuable work that carers do so the half-rate Carer’s Allowance will continue to be paid to full-time carers who are also getting another social welfare payment. The weekly rates of Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Benefit will also be maintained in 2013 and carers who are caring for more than one person will continue to retain the extra weekly payment that they receive. The Department will continue to pay the annual Respite Care Grant to carers, but this will now be at the reduced rate of €1,375.
Jobseekers
There will be changes to the Jobseeker’s Benefit scheme. From 3rd April next, the length of time during which people can avail of this scheme is being reduced from 12 months to 9 months for people with 260 or more PRSI contributions paid and from 9 months to 6 months for people with less than 260 PRSI contributions paid. Recipients of Jobseeker’s Benefit who, on the 3rd April 2013 have been receiving a payment for 6 months or more (or 3 months in the case of those with less than 260 contributions paid) will not be affected.
PRSI Changes
From January 2013, the Employee’s PRSI-Free Allowance of €127 per week (for those paying PRSI Class A, E and H) and €26 per week (for those paying PRSI Class B, C and D) will be abolished.
Employees who earn €352 or less per week continue to have no liability to make a PRSI contribution and are not affected by the abolition of the weekly PRSI-Free Allowance.
Currently, employees who pay PRSI at Classes B, C and D (a minority of the civil and public sector) are exempt from PRSI in respect of self-employed earned income (from a profession or trade) and any other unearned income e.g. rental income. This exemption will be abolished from next year and all such income will become liable to PRSI at the rate of 4%. In the following year (2014), the exemption from PRSI applying to all employees with unearned income only, will be abolished. Also, from next year, the minimum annual PRSI contribution for people with annual self-employed income over €5,000 will increase from €253 per annum to €500 per annum.
A number of other measures are also included in this year's Social Protection package:
The employer rebate element of the statutory redundancy scheme will be discontinued with effect from January 2013.
For the purposes of the Farm Assist scheme, the rate assessment of means from self-employment, including farming, is being raised from 85% to 100%. The deductions from income for children are being discontinued (currently €127 per year for each of the first two dependent children and €190.50 per year for each subsequent child).
The €300 Back to Education Allowance will be discontinued for new and existing participants
New participants on the Back to Education Allowance who had been in receipt of a reduced rate of a qualifying payment because of means, will not have their Back to Education Allowance up-rated
New participants on the Back to Education Allowance who had been in receipt of a reduced aged related rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance of €100 or €144 per week will receive €160 per week on their Back to Education Allowance per week. Previously, this had been €188 per week.
Read the full press release here.