A RISE in welfare payments of £3 a week was one of the main features of the social welfare changes in the Budget.
But a range of changes in social welfare schemes was also announced, to benefit specific pockets of recipients.
The £3 a week rise in personal social welfare payments, with an extra £1.50 for adult dependants, represents twice the rate of inflation, the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, said.
The above inflation increase was welcomed by the Combat Poverty Agency which said, however, that some payments are still between £2 and £4 a week behind the rate recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare.
Assistance for larger families - whether on welfare or not - came in the form of a rise in monthly child benefit of £5 per child for the third and each subsequent child in a family. But the £1 increase for each of the first two children was criticised by Combat Poverty.
Combined with a freeze on weekly child dependant allowances for people on welfare, "this will leave child income support for many welfare families relatively lower," it said. The practice recently has been to concentrate increases in the monthly child benefit - which families keep when the breadwinner returns to work - rather than in the weekly child dependant allowance.
A couple on long term unemployment assistance with four children will get an increase of £7.27 a week, according to figures provided by the Department.
A carer with three children who is getting the carer's allowance will get an extra £4.60 a week - but that includes the child benefit increase. A carer looking after two dependent adults will get an extra 50 per cent, a rise of £35.25.
An old age pensioner couple on the non contributory pension will be £6 a week better off from mid June. A couple on a contributory pension will get an extra £4.50 a week.
Most recipients of the Family Income Supplement will get an extra £6 a week because of changes in how their income is calculated. The FIS is paid to working parents on low wages.
Some improvements have been introduced for self employed people. Maternity benefit will be extended to the self employed.
Reduced contributory pensions will be introduced for people whose average yearly number of PRSI contributions ranges between 10 and 20 (20 is the current minimum). This will go some way towards meeting the grievances of self employed people who were obliged to enter the PRSI system in 1988 but who did not have enough time left to accumulate sufficient contributions to qualify for an old age pension.
But about 600 self employed people who were over 56 at the time and had earlier PRSI contributions will have the old age element of their contributions refunded. About £1 million will be shared between them - but any who qualifies for a non contributory pension will get no refund.
The possibility of introducing earnings related old age pensions at some stage in the future is among the options to be considered by the Department, Mr De Rossa said.
Four hundred organisations took part in the social welfare scheme to grant aid security measures for elderly householders, the Minister said. In all, 15,000 people benefited at a cost of £2.5 million. A further £2 million is to be provided for the scheme this year.
Mr De Rossa said he was asking Telecom Eireann to consider renewing a scheme in which people entitled to free telephone rental were charged a reduced £75 installation fee.
Other changes announced yesterday include:
. Abolition of the earnings limit for entitlement to dental and optical treatment.
. A new non contributory widower's pension to be introduced.
. 5,000 extra places on the back to work allowance scheme of which 20 per cent will be reserved for people on Disability Allowance (formerly the Disabled Person's Maintenance Allowance).
. A new means tested sickness allowance for people who are temporarily incapable of work but who do not have the PRSI contributions to enable them to qualify, for disability benefit.