Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 February 2023
404. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason social welfare payments to single mothers, such as the one-parent family payment, are reduced if their ex-partner is still contributing to the family's mortgage payments. [6935/23]
View answerOne-Parent Family Payment is a means-tested payment which is made to men or women who are caring for a child or children without the support of a partner and whose youngest child is aged under 7. The Jobseeker's Transitional Payment is then available where the youngest child is aged between 7 and 14, subject to the qualifying criteria.
Social welfare legislation provides that, for social assistance schemes such as One-Parent Family Payment, all income, non-cash benefits, and capital belonging to the claimant are assessable for means-testing purposes. Accordingly, where an individual is receiving a contribution to the payment of the mortgage on their family home, the cash value of amounts in excess of €4,952 per year is assessed.
On foot of recommendations of the Child Maintenance Review Group, the Government has decided to make a number of improvements to the payments available to lone parents. In particular, the means test for social welfare payments will be eased as child maintenance payments will no longer be assessed. This will mean that many lone parents currently on reduced rates of payment will see their payment increase. It will also mean that some additional lone parents will qualify for a payment. It is estimated that this measure will be of direct benefit to approximately 16,000 lone parents at a cost of approximately €10 million per year.
Introducing these changes requires amendments to legislation, the details of which are currently being examined. The reforms will also necessitate changes to some of my Department’s systems, application forms and processes.
My officials are working on advancing the legislative provisions and associated issues at present to ensure implementation as early as possible. In the meantime, other changes recommended by the report - namely the removal of the liable relatives provisions and the "efforts to seek maintenance" requirements - are being implemented on an administrative basis.
