Vol. 528 No. 2
74 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of families who have benefited from the family income supplement in each of the past five years; and his views on the poverty traps that exist at the upper limits of these payments. [29694/00]
There were a total of 13,065 families in receipt of family income supplement, as of end November 2000. Details of the numbers who benefited from FIS in each of the years between 1996 and 1999 are set out in the attached tabular statement.
Regarding poverty traps, I assume the Deputy is referring to the potential for a fall in income when entitlement to FIS is fully exhausted and the level of tax payable increases.
I would wish of course that no situation would arise where this could occur. The reality is that such traps can feature in any system which is based on income thresholds. The range of measures taken by this Government, particularly the improvements in the tax regime and the assessment of FIS on the basis of net rather than gross income – have had the effect of greatly reducing the incidence and extent of the poverty traps and ensured that they can only arise significantly further up the income distribution than was the case previously.
Moreover, the 2001 budget provides for increases of the FIS weekly income thresholds by £25 at each point. This will add an additional £15 to the payments of nearly all existing FIS recipients. These increases will have the effect of further alleviating any remaining poverty traps which occur.
|
Year |
Number of Recipients |
|
1996 |
11,847 |
|
1997 |
12,888 |
|
1998 |
13,143 |
|
1999 |
14,549 |
