The one-parent family payment, OPFP, acts as a safety net for people where there is inadequate maintenance, where maintenance payments are irregular, or where efforts to secure maintenance in the first place fail. Applicants for OPFP are required to make ongoing efforts to look for adequate maintenance from their former spouses, or, in the case of unmarried applicants, the other parent of their child. They must satisfy my Department that they have made reasonable attempts to obtain such maintenance.
Separated OPFP claimants must demonstrate that they have made reasonable efforts to obtain support before their lone-parent payment is awarded. Unmarried claimants must demonstrate similar efforts after their claim is awarded. Guidelines as to the steps to be taken in making reasonable efforts to obtain maintenance are published on my Department's website.
The issue of maintenance payments is first and foremost a private matter for the persons concerned, and if they cannot resolve the problem, for the courts through family law provisions.
The purpose of the maintenance recovery operation of the Department of Social and Family Affairs is to recover some or all of the moneys being expended on social welfare payments for lone parents. In every case where a one-parent family payment is awarded, the maintenance recovery unit of my Department seeks to trace the other parent, referred to as the liable relative, in order to ascertain whether he or she is in a financial position to contribute towards the cost of OPFP. The follow-up activity takes place within two to three weeks of the award of payment.
All liable relatives assessed with maintenance liability are notified by my Department and they are issued with a determination order setting out the amount of contribution assessed. The amount assessed can be reviewed where new information comes to light about the financial or household circumstances of the liable relative. Decisions on the amounts assessed can be appealed by liable relatives to the Social Welfare Appeals Office.
The number of OPFP recipients being paid by my Department at the end of December 2005 was 83,066. Included in this figure are 906 payments to widowed persons where maintenance is not an issue. In the period January 2003 to December 2005, the maintenance recovery unit has examined 56,032 cases and issued determination orders to 8,017 liable relatives. As at the end of January 2006 — the latest date for which figures are available — 2,193 liable relatives are contributing directly to my Department.
My Department's records indicate that approximately 9,600 one-parent family payment recipients are in receipt of maintenance from their spouse or other parent of their child or children and as a result receive a reduced rate OPFP. Figures are not available for one-parent family payment recipients who receive maintenance payments and still qualify for the maximum rate of payment.
