Claire Kerrane
Question:455. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of extending the working family payment to those without children; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37532/21]
View answerTuesday, 13 July 2021
Questions (455)
Written answers
Working Family Payment provides an income support to employees on low earnings with children. As of May 2021 there were 45,816 families in receipt of the payment in respect of 148,647 children. Overall expenditure on the scheme in 2020 is estimated to be approximately €397 million.
Working Family Payment is a family benefit, as defined in EU Regulation 883/2004. As such it would not be possible to extend it to households without children in its current form. Additionally, the income thresholds for working family payment are directly linked to the number of children in the household and therefore are not transferrable to other family types. It is not possible to provide a costing as requested by the Deputy for these reasons.
My Department provides other supports for people on low incomes regardless of whether or not they have children. In particular, Jobseeker’s Allowance includes a provision whereby a person can engage in employment for 3 days out of 7 and retain the payment (subject to continuing to satisfy the means test and other qualifying conditions).