Ireland and the Minimum Income Guarantee - Combat Poverty Agency

Detailed Descriptions of the Existing Schemes
Table 1: Weekly Guaranteed Amount, OAP, Before Child Benefit, from
mid-June 1995.
IR£ per month
Single person"
Couple(married) b
Without
child
62.50
125.00
1 child
75.70
138.20
2 children
88.90
151.40
With child
3 children
102.10
164.60
meaningful to add a "housing benefit" element to the amount guaranteed
to OAP recipients. Most recipients of OAP would also not have
child dependants. Nonetheless, for reference, Table 2 shows what the
guaranteed amounts would be including Child Benefit where there
were child dependants.
Table 2: Weekly Guaranteed Amount, OAP, Including Child Benefit,
from September 1995.
Notes:
a: An individual living alone is entitled to a further £4.90. Most single women would receive
widows non-contributory pension.
b: Both individuals are assumed to have individual entitlement; if one has entitlement and the
other has not but is a dependant, they receive £100.00 rather than £125.00, with child
dependant additions as above.
Single
62.50
One-parent
1 child 2 children
81.93 101.36
no children
125.00
Couple
1 child 2 children
144.43 163.86
3 children
184.44
Each additional adult with individual entitlement receives the same
amount, shown above, while each such individual may receive a supplement
for a non-eligible dependant adult (see note b). The amount paid
for each dependent child does not vary according to the child's age or
the number of children. There are no supplements related to marital
status: entitlement is individual (except in the case of non-eligible adult
dependants - see above). The amounts shown relate to recipients aged
66 or over: an extra £4.80 per week is payable to those aged 80 or over.
There is no general scheme of Housing Benefit to assist with housing
costs: many social security recipients live in public authority
housing, where rents are adjusted to take tenants' means into
account. Cash assistance with housing costs is payable in certain
circumstances under the SWA scheme to those who are in receipt of
SWA or other social welfare payments and whose rent or mortgage
repayments are deemed to be high. A separate rent allowance
scheme assists only those who were affected by the de-control of
private rented accommodation from 1982. Only relatively small
numbers receive cash assistance for housing costs under these
schemes, and for public housing tenants the value of the rent
reduction varies with means and across localities. It is not therefore
Note: Couple each assumed to be eligible for OAP, and each under 80 years of age.
No housing element included {see text).
The implicit equivalence scale where each individual in the couple is
eligible for OAP (i.e. is 66 or over):
single adult 1.00
couple 2.00
couple with 1 child 2.31
couple with 2 children 2.60
couple with 3 children 2.95
The implicit equivalence scale where the couple comprises an eligible
individual and non-eligible dependent spouse is:
single adult 1.00
couple 1.60
couple with 1 child 1.95
couple with 2 children 2.26
couple with 3 children 2.59
As mentioned above, there is a supplement paid for an individual
living alone, and an age supplement for those aged 80 and over,
each paid automatically to eligible recipients. There are no other
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