Social Protection Committee publishes report on the Social Welfare (Child Maintenance and Liable Relatives Provisions) Bill 2023

In January 2020, the Government established a Child Maintenance Review Group to examine several issues regarding child maintenance in Ireland.

The Report of the Group was published in November 2022, and the Government accepted its recommendations in relation to the social welfare system, which are as follows: 1. Child maintenance payments to be excluded from social welfare means tests, 2. The requirement for lone parents to make efforts to seek maintenance as an eligibility condition for social welfare payments to be removed, and 3. The Liable Relatives provisions to be discontinued.

The general scheme of the Social Welfare (Child Maintenance and Liable Relatives Provisions) Bill sets out the legislative amendments which are required to implement recommendations 1 and 3.

The General Scheme of the Bill also seeks to ensure that lone parents will no longer need to make efforts to seek maintenance to access social welfare payments.

The Committee supports the implementation of the recommendations of the Report of the Child Maintenance Review Group in relation to the social welfare system and welcomes these changes through this proposed legislation.

The Committee has made the following recommendations:

• A Statutory Child Maintenance Agency should be set up as a first step before progression to family courts.

• Measures should be put in place to ensure custodial parents do not lose out financially when the liable relatives unit is dissolved.

• A system of separating child maintenance from other maintenance payments should be facilitated within the regulations of this legislation.

• Any thresholds set out by the Department should be index linked

• The exclusion of indirect payments made towards housing from any assessment of means

• Going forward, the payments should be backdated to the enactment of this legislation rather than the commencement of the law

Speaking on the report, Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Denis Naughten said: “The proposed Bill aims to exclude child maintenance payments from social welfare means tests. It also seeks to ensure that lone parents will no longer need to make efforts to seek maintenance to access social welfare payments - this has delayed receipt of social assistance support and caused hardship for many families in the past.”

“This legislation would introduce a new definition of “maintenance payments” to ensure that child maintenance payments would no longer be assessed as means for the purposes of any social welfare means test. As a result, some lone parents in receipt of payments from the Department of Social Protection would receive a higher rate of payment, and some additional lone parents would qualify for payment. It should be reiterated that there is no change to a parent’s obligation under family law as result of this amendment.”

“The Committee supports the implementation of the recommendations of the report of the child maintenance review group regarding the social welfare system and welcomes the intent to give effect to these changes through this proposed legislation.”

Read the report and its recommendations in full here.