My budget: Pensioner is ‘pleasantly surprised’ at lump-sum payments

Eileen McCann (83) is “pleasantly surprised” at the one-off payments she will get as a result of Budget 2024, and “not surprised” at the €12 increase she will see in her weekly pension from January.

“I kind of knew they wouldn’t go higher than that,” says the widow, who lives alone in Ballinteer, Co Dublin.

She will see her State pension – which is paid at an increased rate to people aged 80 and older – go up to €276 from January. She will get a double payment in December and again in January. As a recipient of fuel allowance and the living alone allowance, she will get lump sums of €300 and of €200 in respect of these in November.

“They are good,” she said, adding she would try to save these rather than spend them. “I will put them into a separate savings account because I find if I leave them in my current account, I’ll think I’m rich and I’ll spend them on things that aren’t urgent.”

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Asked for her reaction to the €12 increase, particularly as groups advocating for older people had called for €25 to keep pace with inflation, she said she had feared it “could be as low as €10, so I am not surprised. They give with one hand and take with another,” she said.

She reiterated that her priorities coming into the winter would be heating her home and her health insurance.

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She is prone to blackouts and falls due to fluctuations in blood pressure. She just spent several weeks in hospital after one fall.

“The doctors are afraid I could blackout in a part of the house that’s freezing if the heating is not on,” she said.

Last winter, with some help from the Alone charity for older people, she was able to keep her heating on low to keep the worst cold at bay.

“Hopefully I will be able to pay the heating if I heat just my bedroom and the bathroom at night time. I’ve got timers on in the kitchen and hall. The blood pressure drops rapidly at night and I go bang [fall]. The doctors in St Vincent’s hospital say I need go to bed by 6pm or 7pm before ‘falling time’,” she said.