Claire Kerrane
Question:428. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full year cost of increasing the jobseeker’s transitional payment scheme age cut-off to 18 years of age. [33523/21]
View answerTuesday, 22 June 2021
Questions (428)
Written answers
My Department provides a number of options for income support to lone parents once their entitlement to the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) ceases. These include the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment (JST) payment where the youngest child is aged 7-13 years (inclusive) and the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) payment which may be paid to lone parents where the youngest child is aged 14 or over. The Working Family Payment (WFP), is also available to lone parents who are working 19 or more hours per week. Lone parents who move to WFP may also apply for the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD).
To extend eligibility for the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment as proposed would be contrary to the policy goal of the changes to the One-Parent Family Payment scheme introduced since 2015. Those changes were designed to tackle long-term social welfare dependency and its associated poverty risks.
This is done through a tapering of income supports and a more active engagement process offering enhanced educational, training and employment supports.
I am advised that the cost of increasing the age limit for a qualified child for the jobseeker's transitional payment (JST) until the youngest child reaches 18 is not easily estimated as there are significant barriers to undertaking such an exercise. For example, customers may no longer be within the welfare system, while others could seek to move from alternative payments such as Jobseekers Allowance (JA), the Working Family Payment (WFP) and the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD) back to JST. It would be difficult for my Department to estimate the magnitude of this flow into and between schemes with any degree of accuracy.
As these unknown factors are critical to providing a reliable estimate, the Department is not in a position to provide a full-year cost as requested by the Deputy.