Office Of Expenditure report details

Biggins

The report can be found here: http://www.budget.gov.ie/Budgets/2012/2012.aspx


Here is just some of its details:

Child Benefit
�� Phase out entitlements to higher rates for the third and
subsequent child over two years
�� Discontinue one-off grants in respect of multiple births


Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance
�� Raise age at which a child qualifies from 2 to 4
�� Reduce rates of payment from €305 to €250 and from €200 to
€150


Qualified child increases
�� For new social insurance claimants, standardise entitlement to a
half-rate qualified child increase where spouse/partner has an
income in excess of €400 per week

Jobseeker’s Benefit
�� Base payment entitlement on a 5 day week rather than a six day
week where a person is working for part of a week
�� From 2013, take employment on Sunday into account when
determining the level of entitlement

Farm Assist
�� Amendments to means test

Disability Allowance
�� Increase age of entitlement for new claimants to 18 in line with
other social welfare payments
�� Align rates of payment for new claimants aged 18 to 24 with the
Jobseeker’s Allowance scheme - new rates of €100 for 18 to 21
year olds inclusive and €144 for 22 to 24 year olds inclusive.
�� As a compensatory measure, entitlement to Domiciliary Care
Allowance will be extended to 16 and 17 year olds

Disablement Benefit
�� For new claimants, remove entitlement to disablement benefit,
where the level of disability is classified as less than 15 per cent

One Parent Family Payment
�� Entitlement will be restricted to cases where the youngest child is
7 years of age over the period to 2014
�� Discontinue, for new and existing claimants, entitlement to two
qualified child increases (currently €29.80 per week) where a
recipient is also on Community Employment Scheme
�� Reduce – over five years – the earnings disregard from €146.50
to €60 per week, for new and existing claimants and discontinue
the transitional payment where income exceeds €425 per week

Redundancy and Insolvency Scheme
�� Reduce employer rebate from 60% to 15%

Rent Supplement
�� Increase minimum contribution and review rent limits

Mortgage Interest Supplement
�� Increase minimum contribution and further restrict expenditure

Fuel Allowance
�� Reduce fuel season by 6 weeks from 32 to 26 weeks for new and
existing recipients

Community Employment Schemes, Back to Education Allowance and
Jobs Initiative
�� Reduce the training and materials from €1,500 to €500 per
participant per annum and obtain savings from supervisory costs
on Community Employment schemes
�� Reduce the annual cost of education allowance to €300
�� Reduce materials allowance and discontinue payment of training
budget for participants on Department’s Jobs Initiative Scheme.

Household Benefits
�� Reduce expenditure on the electricity/gas allowances

State Pension
�� Provide, for new claimants, new payment rates of State Pensions
where the yearly average number of contributions and credits is
less than 48 contributions (from September 2012)
�� Increase the minimum number of contributions required to qualify
for a Widow/er’s Contributory Pension from 156 to 520 in July
2013

Concurrent Payments
�� Discontinue entitlement, for certain new claimants, to concurrent
receipt of an additional half-rate of Jobseeker’s Benefit or Illness
Benefit
�� Phase out – over three years – entitlement to Community
Employment payment and another DSP payment

Late Claims
�� Reduce statutory backdating for late claims from 12 to 6 months
for full entitlement and remove proportionate provision.

Fraud and Control Measures
�� Enhance fraud and control activity

Other Measures
�� Reductions through administrative budget; means testing
rationalisation; treatment benefit and other miscellaneous
measures

Source: http://www.budget.gov.ie/Budgets/2012/2012.aspx

RichieC

"For new claimants, remove entitlement to disablement benefit,
where the level of disability is classified as less than 15 per cent"

what's that mean?

Biggins

RichieC wrote: »

"For new claimants, remove entitlement to disablement benefit,
where the level of disability is classified as less than 15 per cent"

what's that mean?

Not sure myself.

The figures regards cuts are laid out clearer on page 28 onwards of this PDF (direct download)

APOLOGIES - CORRECTED LINK: http://www.budget.gov.ie/Budgets/2012/Documents/CER%20-%20Estimates%20Final%20Part%202.pdf

Godge

RichieC wrote: »

"For new claimants, remove entitlement to disablement benefit,
where the level of disability is classified as less than 15 per cent"

what's that mean?

I would guess it means that if the level of disability is less than 15%, you don't get disability benefit.

View

Godge wrote: »

I would guess it means that if the level of disability is less than 15%, you don't get disability benefit.

I'd guess it means if you lose less than 15% of your leg you don't qualify as being disabled - as in, "If we round up, you still have 100% of your leg, so are able-bodied". :eek:

anymore

View wrote: »

I'd guess it means if you lose less than 15% of your leg you don't qualify as being disabled - as in, "If we round up, you still have 100% of your leg, so are able-bodied". :eek:

I guess it means that if you are like a lot of Blue badge car disability holders, appearently fit and able enough to walk about shopping cenres for hours, than you are probably fit enough to walk from wherever you can find an ordinary parking space.

Tayla

So if someone is 16 now and receiving the disability payment they won't be affected? Is that correct?

Or will someone have to now claim the domiciliary care allowance for them until they are 18?

cee_jay

RichieC wrote: »

"For new claimants, remove entitlement to disablement benefit,
where the level of disability is classified as less than 15 per cent"

what's that mean?

There's a lot of guessing going on! People on this thread don't seem to understand the difference between Illness Benefit, Disability Allowance and Disablement Benefit.
This change affects Disablement Benefit - current guidelines can be seen here: http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Schemes/IllnessDisabilityAndCaring/Illness/OccupationalInjuries/DisablementBenefit/Pages/disable.aspx

cee_jay

Tayla wrote: »

So if someone is 16 now and receiving the disability payment they won't be affected? Is that correct?

Or will someone have to now claim the domiciliary care allowance for them until they are 18?

The changes to Disability Allowance is for new claimants only. People currently in receipt of Disability Allowance are not affected by the new age limits or reduced payments.

Tayla

cee_jay wrote: »

The changes to Disability Allowance is for new claimants only. People currently in receipt of Disability Allowance are not affected by the new age limits or reduced payments.

Thanks, I did think that but I was trying to double check that info for a lady who was very worried about it and I didn't want to give her false hope!