Mary Upton
Question:46 Deputy Mary Upton asked the Minister for Social Protection if he is committed to maintaining the current value of child benefits in 2011. [43865/10]
View answerTuesday, 23 November 2010
Questions (33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
Joe McHugh
Question:55 Deputy Joe McHugh asked the Minister for Social Protection his plans to reform child income support payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43794/10]
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Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:56 Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social Protection if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the number of children sighted begging in Dublin has increased by 9%; the steps he will take in response to this rise in child begging and if he will exempt child benefit from cuts. [43773/10]
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Brian O'Shea
Question:70 Deputy Brian O’Shea asked the Minister for Social Protection the way he plans reforming family income supplement to ensure that more low income families qualify. [43846/10]
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Bernard J. Durkan
Question:255 Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social Protection if his attention has been drawn to the fact that child benefit is very often the only mechanism by which mortgages continue to be paid in every household now affected by the economic downturn; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44064/10]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 46, 55, 56, 70 and 255 together.
Social welfare expenditure for 2011, including expenditure on child income support payments, is currently being considered in the context of the preparation of the Departmental estimates for that year. Any plans to change the child benefit and family income supplement payments are a matter to be decided in a budgetary context and announced on Budget day.
The Department is currently finalising a value-for-money review in the area of child income support payments with a view to publication in the near future. The primary Departmental programmes covered by the review are child benefit, qualified child increases to the main adult payments and family income supplement but the review also looked at other payments. In line with the overall approach of the expenditure review process, conclusions reached in the review, while not necessarily representing Government policy in this area, can be expected to play a role in informing future policy development particularly directed at securing more coherent, effective and efficient spending of public money on families with children.
Clearly child benefit, qualified child increases and family income supplement provide an important income support to families with children. However, their primary objective is not to provide support with mortgages.
The Department has a scheme that provides short-term income support to eligible people who are unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which is their sole place of residence.
The mortgage interest supplement assists with the interest portion of the mortgage repayments only. In order to qualify for mortgage interest supplement, a person must satisfy a number of statutory qualifying conditions including that the person is not engaged in full-time employment, more than 30 hours per week. This means that persons who have suffered unemployment or had their working hours severely reduced can avail of this support.
The issue of children begging is a much broader one than income support and includes child protection issues, which are matters for my colleagues the Minister for Justice and Law Reform and the Minister for Health and Children.