The Child Maintenance Review Group was established in 2020 to prepare a report on: (i) The current treatment within the Department of Social Protection of child maintenance payments,
(ii) The current provisions relating to the liable relatives regarding child maintenance, and (iii) The establishment of a State Child Maintenance Agency.
The Government accepted the Group's recommendations in relation to the social welfare system and I am pleased to say that, pending the introduction of the necessary legislation, my Department has already implemented some of the recommended changes on an administrative basis.
As a result, my Department is no longer applying the "efforts to seek maintenance" requirement to One-Parent Family Payment and Jobseeker's Transitional Payment. This requirement often involved lone parents having to go to Court to seek a maintenance order, so this change will remove a potential additional stress for them, as well as helping to reduce the burden on our courts system.
In addition, the liable relative provisions have been discontinued. This means that my Department is no longer seeking to recoup a portion of claim costs from the non-resident parent. I want to be very clear that removing these provisions does not replace or supersede the primary responsibility of parents to maintain their children.
The remaining reform is that child maintenance payments will be disregarded in the means test for social welfare payments. This measure 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.
These are very significant reforms of the social welfare system which will be of great benefit to lone parents. These changes require amendments to both primary and secondary legislation as well as 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 full implementation as early as possible.
