Plans by the Government to conduct a major reform of the social welfare system by developing a single social assistance payment to replace existing means-tested working age payments will be presented to the troika at the end of March.
Officials from the Department of Social Protection addressed the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education this morning to outline the plans.
Anne Vaughan, deputy secretary of the Department, said it was envisaged that a single payment would replace six payment types – jobseeker's allowance, disability allowance, one parent family payment, farm assist, blind pension and the widow/er's non-contributory pension.
The single payment would apply to new entrants to the social welfare system. It would not be applied retrospectively.
Ms Vaughan said consideration had also been given to replacing the carer's allowance but that had been discounted.
A single payment would address the complexity of the social welfare system by introducing a single means test, standardising the conditionality of the payment and simplifying the relevant income disregards that apply, she told the committee.
Cost savings and gains in efficiencies would result although she could not put an exact figure on what they would be saying the plans were a "work in progress."
She said the availability of supports and services would be "essential" to recipients of the single payment system to make sure they were in a position to avail of education and training opportunities.
The objective, she told the committee, was to improve outcomes for people of working age from a poverty and social inclusion perspective and to ensure that changes to the social welfare system would "made work pay".
She said the restructuring of the Department, the merging of the Community Welfare Service, the Employment and Community Service of Fás and the development of the National Entitlement and Employment Service would help the implementation of the single payment structure.
Sinn Féin's Dublin South Central TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh said while the new payment seemed "administratively attractive", he warned that without a corresponding spend on education and training it would be a "backward step" for people struggling during a recession.
Labour TD for Dublin South Michael Conaghan said claims the new system would bring people "closer to work" were overstated.
"What brings people closer to work is the availability of work," he said.
He agreed, however, that the system needed to be reformed to reduce "deadness and segregation."
Concerns were expressed by Fine Gael TD for Longford/Westmeath Nicky McFadden about any changes to the disability allowance and to the parent family payment that would cause people who were "desperately struggling" to lose money.