Vol. 422 No. 1
91 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Social Welfare if having regard to the annual review that applies to the family income supplement scheme, he will consider making annualised increases in the threshold earlier than in July each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Under the family income supplement scheme weekly payments of supplement are made to families with children, where one or more parent is in employment of at least 20 hours a week and where the income of the family is less than a prescribed weekly amount. Once entitlement to FIS has been established, the payments continue for 52 weeks while the claimant continues in employment.
When any changes in the threshold levels or payment rates under the FIS scheme are being implemented, the payments made to all existing claimants are reviewed and increases applied to all recipients, regardless of when entitlement was established. Therefore claimants whose entitlement was established prior to rate changes are not disadvantaged because of the timing of their claim.
In line with changes in social welfare schemes generally, changes in the family income supplement are implemented in July of each year. The family income supplement is designed to ensure that the incentive to work is maintained and increases in the income limits under the schemes are determined by reference to the increases applied to unemployment payments. It is therefore appropriate that the increases in both cases come into operation at the same time. The simultaneous implementation of all social welfare payment changes also assists the process of alerting the public to changes in their entitlements. I have no plans at present to alter the timing of increases under the family income supplement scheme.
