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Investment in Qualitybenefit/allowances to which they may be entitled, and have registered for workwith FÁS if they are of working age.5. People who are aged 55 or over and have been receiving UnemploymentBenefit/Unemployment Assistance for 15 months or more, may opt to retirefrom the workforce and apply for Pre-Retirement Allowance (PRETA) whichis a means-tested payment.6. Farm Assist is a weekly means-tested payment for low-income farmers.Introduced in 1999, it has replaced the Smallholders UnemploymentAssistance Scheme.It is clear that a strong consensus that every member of societyneeds an adequate money income does not answer the question as tothe proportion of it the state should undertake to provide, andwhether—and which—conditions should attach. However, whilenon-monetary resources contextualise in a major way the significanceof a given money income and people may receive incomefrom several sources, the question remains as to what level ofmoney income society believes government should be willing toprovide, given the set of non-cash supports potentially available andassuming a single person had only that income on which to live.The lowest rate of social welfare payment increased by 29 per centin real terms over the nine-year period, 1994-2002. 6 One consequenceof this is that, while recipients were 8 per cent below the 50per cent of mean income poverty line in 1994, they were 17 per centabove the same line, up-rated for inflation, by 2002. 7 The scale ofthis real increase can take significant credit for the reduction inpoverty since 1994. Several considerations support this conclusion.Ireland’s poorest households generate next to no market income andare, therefore, wholly dependent on social welfare. Förster (2000:84) found that the share of total earnings in the economy going tothe bottom 30 per cent of the working-age population in the mid-1990s was 4.8 per cent in Ireland, the lowest in 15 countries hestudied; he also found that Ireland’s tax/transfer system was6. The welfare rates compared apply to July, 1994, (£58.90) and January, 2002,(€118.80) respectively. Therefore, one half the inflation rate for 1994 and thefull inflation rate for 1995 to 2001 inclusive constitute the change in the cost ofliving. The cumulative rise in the nominal welfare rate is 59 per cent and in thecost of living 23 per cent.7. The 50 per cent relative income poverty line in 1994 was £64 per week.312