Vol. 436 No. 2
13 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason he is disallowing lone parent's allowance to women whose children are in receipt of maintenance payments as a result of a court order; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
57 Mr. Bradford asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he proposes to reverse the situation whereby maintenance orders for both spouse and children are recoupable from lone parent payments.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 57 together.
Where a marriage breakdown occurs and a family is dependent on social welfare income maintenance, the person who is liable to maintain that family must contribute to my Department towards the cost of the family's income support. The liability to maintain the family provisions in Part IX of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1993 allows for the transfer to my Department of all maintenance received by a claimant, including maintenance paid to children.
In situations where the family is adequately maintained by the liable relative, that is where the maintenance (which may relate to both the claimant and dependent children) exceeds the maximum rate of lone parent's allowance appropriate to the family size, then my Department is not involved in income support. However, if the level of maintenance is inadequate or no maintenance is paid to the family, my Department supports the family through the appropriate income support scheme.
