BUDGET 2016: Carers are ‘only given back what was taken’

Respite care grant and 75% of welfare Christmas bonus restored

Restoration was the main theme of the social protection budget with two of the main measures highlighted by Joan Burton bringing payments back to previous levels rather than breaking new ground.

The hugely unpopular 20% cut to the respite care grant in 2012, which cost carers around €350 a year, is being restored to its previous level of €1,700 from next year.

It will also be partially paid a little earlier as it has up to now come in one payment in June but from next year will be paid in two installments in April and September.

“Carers play an incredibly important role in our society,” said Ms Burton. Her words, and actions, were warmly welcomed by the Carers Association and the 80,000 recipients of the grant, but with the qualification that it was only giving back what was taken away.

The other big comeback is that of the Christmas bonus for the country’s 1.23m welfare recipients. Traditionally a double payment for one week several weeks before Christmas, it was scrapped in 2009 to massive outcry.

It made a partial reappearance last year, with welfare recipients getting a 25% bonus, but this year it goes up to 75% to be paid by December 8 which, the minister, pointed out, was the traditionally big Christmas shopping day.

“This is an iconic feature of the Irish social welfare system. I grew up with uncles and aunts who depended on it and I know how much it means to people and how severe they felt its loss,” she said.

“I know so many people who actually grieved over the loss of this particular payment and for all of the people who I’ve known in my life who’ve used it and used it well, particularly for their children and their grandchildren, I’m delighted to see us restore it.”

The cost of restoring it will be €197m but Ms Burton said it was justified economically as it was money that primarily went into local retailers, providing many small businesses with a much-needed boost.

In other measures announced yesterday, the period during which a carer can continue receiving the carers’ allowance following the death or move to residential care of the person for whom they are caring is to be increased from six to 12 weeks.

The €2.50 weekly increase in the winter fuel allowance was the other main measure with a wide reach, expected to benefit more than 400,000 long-term welfare recipients.

All the measures are part of a €19.638bn welfare budget for 2016. That’s up €223m on the budget for this year and represents the first increase since the recession.

However, it is not enough to increase welfare payments, apart from those for the over-66s, which otherwise remain static for another year and it also does not allow for restoring the mobility allowance for people with disabilities or the telephone allowance which was part of the household benefits package.

Fianna Fáil social protection spokesman Willie O’Dea also pointed out that the reduction in the payment of the fuel allowance from 32 to 26 weeks had not been reversed and the bereavement grant had not been restored.

He also said the failure to increase rent supplement was a “grave misstep”, adding: “This budget is a desperate attempt by this Government to regain lost ground and fool people in the face of a general election.”

The Society of St Vincent de Paul also expressed concern at the failure to increase the rent supplement. While welcoming the general thrust of the budget, it said it only gave back a “small element of the losses” people had endured in recent years.