Social Welfare Bill which provides for Budget 2022 Measures is published - Minister Humphreys
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
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:
Minister Heather Humphreys commented:
“I look forward to bringing this Bill through the Oireachtas, which will give effect to the wide range of measures that I announced in Budget 2022, representing the largest social welfare budget package in 14 years.
“The Bill will give effect to the increases in all core weekly payments – benefitting pensioners, lone parents, jobseekers, carers and people with disabilities.”
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
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.