The liability to maintain family provisions contained in the Social Welfare Act, 1989 were commenced on 29 November 1990.
Since then, a total of 952 cases have been assessed or are in the process of being investigated. The identification of these 952 cases involved a first phase elimination of almost 5,000 other cases, where it is now established that liability does not exist. Seven liable relatives have started to make a contribution towards their spouses' deserted wife's benefit or allowance or lone parent allowance. Currently there are 19,051 claimants receiving a deserted wife's payment or lone parent (separated spouses) allowance from my Department.
Legal proceedings are being considered in a number of cases that have failed to comply. As data is built up the level of success will rise quickly. In addition, the move towards the unique RSI number for every adult will make identification of deserting spouses easier and more effective. The work done so far shows that cases fall into three main categories. The first two are cases where a liability on the spouse either does not arise or cannot be pursued. These relate to cases where the spouse is either on social welfare payments or cannot be traced generally because of having gone abroad. The Department's main ongoing action will, therefore, be limited to the remaining category who have a possible liability which may be capable of being pursued.
Statistics are not available from either the health boards or my Department of the total number of liable relatives who are making contributions towards payments of supplementary welfare allowance to deserted or separated spouses. Accordingly, it is not possible to say what proportion of supplementary welfare allowance payments to deserted spouses are being offset by contributions to health boards from liable relatives.