Liz O'Donnell
Ceist:60 Ms O'Donnell asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he has plans to pay the family income supplement payment directly to the primary care giver in the family as recommended by the Council for the Status of Women.
Written Answers. - Family Income Supplement.
The purpose of family income supplement is to provide cash support for employees on low earnings with families and thereby preserve the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances in which they might be only marginally better off than if they were claiming unemployment or disability benefits. The level of cash support is determined by a set percentage of the difference between the actual gross weekly income and the specified amount for each family size. Since the scheme's inception in September 1984, there has been a steady increase in the number of families in receipt of family income supplement. Last year the number of family income supplement recipients reached 7,735 families, providing for 26,764 children. This increased level of take-up reflects the major improvements which I have made to the scheme in recent years.
These changes include a substantial increase in the income limits for eligibility, a reduction of the hours-of-work qualification from 24 to 20 hours, an increase in the number of qualifying children in a family from five to eight, the abolition of the maximum rate of payment and the implementation of a minimum £5 weekly payment for all recipients while the common fear among potential family income supplement claimants that they risk losing the medical card has been removed. In this year's budget, I have increased the income limits by a further £20 so that the weekly rate for a one-child family is £175 and £314 for a family with eight children.
The family income supplement regulations allow a claimant to nominate her or his spouse as an agent for the collection of the weekly payment. My primary concern is to further improve the take-up of the scheme in any way I can. I am considering in this context, and in the context of the policy objectives of the scheme as I have outlined them, the proposal made by the Council for the Status of Women that family incomes supplement should be paid to the primary care giver.