The family income supplement (FIS) payment is designed to provide income for employees on low earnings with families. Expenditure on FIS for 2012 was of the order of €224 million in respect of some 32,000 families. The estimated expenditure for 2013 is expected to be €229 million in 2013.
The FIS payment preserves the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might only be marginally better off than if he/she was unemployed and claiming other social welfare payments. To qualify for payment of FIS, a person must be engaged in full-time insurable employment which is expected to last for at least 3 months and be working for a minimum of 38 hours per fortnight or 19 hours per week. The applicant must also have at least one qualified child who normally resides with - or is supported by - him/her. Furthermore, the average family income must be below a specified amount which varies according to the number of qualified children in the family.
An integral part of the FIS scheme is that once the level of payment is determined, it continues to be payable at that rate for a period of 52 weeks, provided that the person remains in full-time employment. The rate of payment may be increased if an additional child is born in the course of the 52 weeks. On the other hand, the rate of payment will not change if there is an increase or decrease in the recipient’s earnings. A key advantage of this approach, which is unique to the FIS scheme, is that claimants can be certain that they will receive a guaranteed level of income support throughout the period. This certainty is important to the success of the scheme as it provides a real incentive to workers with families to avail of employment opportunities.
The one-family parent payment (OFP) scheme has played an important role in providing income support to lone parents since its introduction as the Lone Parent’s Allowance (LPA) in 1990. The number of OFP recipients stood at 87,855 in April, 2013. The cost of the OFP scheme was €1.06 billion in 2012 and is estimated to be €935 million in 2013.
The Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2012 introduced several changes to the OFP scheme, including the phased reduction of the maximum age limit of the youngest child at which a recipient’s payment ceases to 7 years from 2014 for new entrants and from 2015 for existing recipients. Originally, this phased reduction was set to occur in January of each year from 2013 until 2015. However, Budget 2013 contained amendments to postpone the dates of the OFP scheme age changes – meaning that the phased reduction of the maximum age limit of the youngest child will now not apply until July of each year from 2013 until 2015. The reforms to the scheme aim to provide the necessary supports to lone parents to help them to escape poverty and social exclusion, participate in education and training, develop their skills set, enter the workforce and, ultimately, attain financial independence and social well-being for both themselves and their families.
Some OFP recipients are presently in receipt of both the FIS and OFP payments. Under current FIS legislation, these recipients will be reviewed at the end of their 52 week period, when the loss of their entitlement to the OFP payment as a result of the OFP reforms would be taken into account. I am conscious of the impact that these provisions will have on those recipients and officials from my Department are currently examining this issue.
The supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme is a means tested weekly payment for people who have insufficient means or no income which provides a basic income support payment to eligible people whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependants. The Government has provided €161.4 million for the basic SWA scheme in 2013. The main purpose of the basic supplementary welfare allowance scheme is to provide immediate and flexible assistance for those in need. The scheme is subject to certain terms and conditions and a claimant can receive SWA while waiting for a claim for another payment to be processed or if they are not entitled to any other weekly payment.
