Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 24 Jun 1999

Vol. 507 No. 1

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

Pat Carey

Ceist:

92 Mr. P. Carey asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of people in receipt of one parent family payments for each of the years from 1995 to date; and the number of books surrendered in each of these years. [16198/99]

Pat Carey

Ceist:

93 Mr. P. Carey asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of lone parents claiming for one child, two children and three or more children; and the number of lone parents refused one parent family payment due to income. [16200/99]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

It is proposed to take Questions Nos. 92 and 93 together.

The information requested by the Deputy is contained in the following tables.

Table 1: Number of recipients of one parent family payment and number of claims terminated, 1995 to 1999*.

Year	Recipients	ClaimsTerminated
1995 (Dec.)	45,779	5,565
1996 (Dec.)	50,557	5,660
1997 (Dec.)	58,960	8,271
1998 (Dec.)	65,548	8,117
1999 (May)	67,738	N/A

*The figures for 1995 to 1997 inclusive relate to recipients of lone parent's allowance. Lone parent's allowance, deserted wife's allowance, deserted wife's benefit and prisoners wife's allowance were discontinued for new claimants from the end of December 1996. A new unified payment, one-parent family payment was introduced in January 1997 for all parents who are bringing up children on their own.

Table 2: Number of recipients of one parent family payment by number of children, May 1999.

Number of Children	Recipients
1 Child	42,054
2 Children	15,822
3+ Children	9,769

A total of 416 new and existing claimants had their claims for one parent family payment rejected or terminated during 1998 as their income exceeded the threshold for entitlement.

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

94 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs when a single rate of unemployment assistance will be paid to a person (details supplied) in County Kildare with the provisor that his wife and children will receive their entitlement separately; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16233/99]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

The person concerned claimed and was paid unemployment assistance from 19 February 1997 to 1 July 1997. He commenced work on a community employment scheme in July, 1997 and has not been in touch with the Department since then.

If the person concerned wishes to make a claim for unemployment benefit he should call to his local social welfare office and make a claim. According to my Department's records he has sufficient contributions paid to qualify for unemployment benefit at this time. Any claim made will be examined and the person concerned notified of the outcome without delay.