ALONE Pre-Budget Submission 2025
This is ALONE’s Pre-Budget Submission for 2025, which highlights key areas of concern based on data that ALONE has collected in 2024. It outlines five key asks of the Department of Social Protection for Budget 2025, and four key asks of the Department of Health for Budget 2025.
In regards to the Department of Social Protection, ALONE asks are:
1. Benchmarking the state Pension, increasing it by a minimum of €18, with a commitment to increase by a similar amount in Budget 026. This Report estimates the total cost to be €692.1m
2. Increase the living alone allowance by a minimum of €10 and develop appropriate benchmarking for this payment. This report estimates a cost of 122.8m
3. Increase the telephone support allowance by a minimum of €7.50 and to rename it “Telephone and Internet Support Allowance”. The total estimated cost is €60.6m
4. Increase the fuel allowance by a minimum of €0, in addition to providing appropriate levels of once-off payments. The estimated cost for this is €124.8m
5. Simplify the application process for entitlements that make accessing payments easier.
To the Department of Health, ALONE asks are:
1. Commit funding to combating loneliness. This report estimates a cost of €5m
2. Develop funding for Housing with Support. ALONE estimates a cost of €2.3m for the cost of each 50-unit HwS scheme
3. Increase funding to home support services, €1.053billion, a budget increase of €326m)
4. Adequately fund mental health supports for older people.
There are also additional asks for the Department of the Taoisace (ie., the establishment of a Commissioner for Older People), the Department of Housing (i.e., funding for housing adaptation grants, and developing a new funding mechanism for housing with support) and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (i.e., deliver funding to support older people experiencing energy poverty).
