Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 February 2012
134 Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Social Protection the way she will ensure the health and welfare of children in the State considering the specific cuts that have been made to one-parent families in budget 2012. [8084/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe payment rate for the scheme remains at €188 per week — with a further €29.80 per week for each additional qualified child. Until 2011, the OFP payment provided long-term income support to lone parents until children were aged 18, or 22 if in full-time education, without any requirement for them to engage in employment, education or training. Such long-term welfare dependency and passive income support to individuals of working age are not considered to be in the best interests of the recipient, of their children or of society.
Legislative changes were introduced to the OFP in the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2010. These came into effect on 27 April, 2011, and reduced the maximum age limit of the youngest child for receipt of the OFP to 14. Further changes to the maximum age limit of the youngest child for receipt of the OFP were announced in Budget 2012. There are no changes for existing customers until 2013 — after which revised phasing-out arrangements will come into effect. The OFP will also see a reduction, over five years, of the earnings disregard for new and existing claimants.
Social assistance and the structure and delivery of payments have a key role to play in terms of incentive and disincentive effects with regard to commencing/returning to work, education or training and extending employment. While supports are available to those in receipt of the OFP payment, these are not currently provided in a structured or systematic way.
The changes to the OFP scheme put in place a model that:
prevents long-term dependence on social welfare support and facilitates financial independence among parents,
recognises parental choice with regard to the care of young children, but with the expectation that parents will not remain outside of the labour force indefinitely, and
includes an expectation of participation in education, training and employment initiatives, with the appropriate social welfare supports provided in this regard.
The changes also move the scheme towards a single means-tested social assistance payment for people of working age, which is the Department's strategy with regard to means-tested income support. This payment will end the categorisation of customers, including lone parents, into different payment types and will instead focus on the person and on their individual capacities. People can then be given, or be directed to, the supports and services that they need in order to return to, or take up, employment, training or educational opportunities.
135 Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Social Protection the future role of child income supports under the proposal to roll out a single working age payment system in the social welfare system. [10026/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Department of Social Protection makes a number of payments to families with children which include child benefit, which is provided on a universal basis to all families. They also include payments to low income families including the family income supplement and qualified child increases to recipients of primary social welfare payments, both of which provide a level of assistance that is directly or indirectly linked with a household's income situation.
The principle of a single working age payment is to create a payment that would cover all people of working age including those who would currently be classified as unemployed, disabled, or parenting alone. The aim of the single payment is to give effect to the policy principle that people are given or directed to the supports or services that they need in order to return to or take-up work or other training or educational opportunities, matched by a requirement that they avail of that support. This approach would also provide an opportunity to address the current complexity of Ireland's social welfare assistance system by streamlining a number of different payments for people of working age. There are no plans to change the existing arrangements in relation to increases for qualified children in the context of a single assistance payment for people of working age.
In June 2011, an Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare was established to address a number of specific issues around the operation and interaction of the tax and social protection systems. The Group has been tasked with recommending cost-effective solutions as to how employment disincentives can be improved and better poverty outcomes can be achieved, particularly child poverty outcomes, and to identify the specific practical institutional and administrative improvements to their operation. The Advisory Group is currently prioritising child income support payments and will, thereafter, examine other issues, including consideration of working age income supports.
